A Maltese port manager has been shot dead in Somalia’s northern semi-autonomous Puntland state, officials say.
Paul Anthony Formosa, who was the construction project manager for DP World, was killed near Bossasso port.
Islamist militant group al-Shabab has said it carried out the attack.
Puntland, an arid region of north-east Somalia, declared itself an autonomous state in 1998, in part to avoid the clan warfare in southern Somalia.
The state is a destination for many Somalis displaced by violence in the south.
Mr Formosa was manager for P&O Ports, a subsidiary of the Dubai-based DP World, one of the world’s largest port operators.
He was waylaid by gunmen disguised as fishermen as he was heading to the port, news agency Reuters reports.
“[He was killed] in the fish market as he was going to Bossasso port this morning. The men armed with pistols hit him [with] several bullets in the head,” Yusuf Mohamed, governor of Puntland’s Bari region, told Reuters.
