ADDIS ABABA(August 19,2008) - Gunmen in southern Somalia have killed an employee of the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP), the relief agency said on Monday.

Abdulkadir Diad Mohamed, a Somali who joined WFP in June as an administration and finance assistant, was apparently abducted and then shot dead when he tried to escape.

Kidnappings and killings are common in Somalia, where insurgents have been battling the country's interim government since the start of last year.

Some attacks are political but others are the result of general lawlessness in a desperately poor country awash with weapons.

"WFP does not believe his death to be related to the recent spate of targeted attacks on aid workers in Somalia," WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a statement without elaborating.

"I am shocked by this senseless and barbaric attack on one of our staff," the statement added. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and colleagues."

WFP said details were still being gathered but it appeared Mohamed, 33, was killed on Friday while visiting his home in Dinsor.

It said the driver of the vehicle he was using -- who was not a WFP staff member -- was also killed, while a third member of their group managed to escape.

"This is the first violent death of a WFP staff member in Somalia since 1993, although five drivers employed by WFP

contractors have been killed since the start of the year," the statement added.

The fighting in Somalia has triggered a humanitarian crisis that aid workers say may be the worst in Africa.

At least a million people have been uprooted by the violence since early last year, and their plight has been compounded by record high food prices, hyper-inflation and drought.

WFP said experts fear the number of Somalis needing food aid could reach 3.5 million people later this year -- nearly half the country's population.