The United Nations has temporarily suspended all non-lifesaving aid operations in the world's biggest refugee camp following the kidnapping of two Spanish aid workers near the Kenya-Somalia border.

Hundreds of staff have been confined to their offices, forcing the cancellation of services like education, counselling and the relocation of families until further notice.

Aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says it is also pulling all its foreign staff from the Kenyan camp.

Kenyan security forces fanned out through the semi-arid border area on Friday, hunting abductors believed by Kenyan police to be Somali Al Shabaab insurgents. The Al Qaeda-linked rebel movement has denied it was responsible for the attack.

Some aid agencies have become increasingly concerned by the worsening insecurity at the sprawling camp, where refugee numbers have swollen to more than 460,000 this year as famine and conflict drive Somalis across the border.

UNHCR regional communications officer Needa Jehu-Hoyah says the kidnappings are disturbing for all aid workers.

"Unfortunately the recent events are going to affect aid delivery in Dadaab. Any activities of UNHCR workers that are not related toward health or food distribution have been suspended with immediate effect ... this has to be done to ensure the safety of staff," she said.

Medecins Sans Frontieres in Madrid said Blanca Thiebaut, 30, from Madrid, was one of the kidnapped Spanish women. The other woman, Montserrat Serra, 40, had been named yesterday. They both worked in logistics for the group at the camp.

"MSF has not been able to establish contact with the kidnapped workers so far. A crisis committee has been set up to manage the incident," Jose Antonio Bastos, president of MSF in Spain told a news conference in Madrid.

"MSF always works without armed security ... It's part of our policy to show people and armed groups that we have nothing to do with the conflict and we are purely a humanitarian and medical organisation," Mr Bastos said.

The African Union strongly condemned the abduction, which came some weeks after gunmen with close ties to Somali militants kidnapped two Western visitors on northern Kenya's coast in separate incidents.



BBC/Reuters