MOGADISHU, Somalia - Witnesses say two gunmen fatally shot an aid worker as he walked out of a mosque in Somalia, the latest in a string of attacks on the humanitarian community.

A village elder says Mohamed Saakow, who worked for Mercy Corps, was killed Saturday night in Jamame, about 440 kilometres from the capital of Mogadishu.

At least 16 aid workers have been killed so far this year in Somalia, which is caught up in a civil war with Islamic insurgents.

The impoverished Horn of Africa country has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991.

Foreigners, journalists and aid workers are frequently abducted for ransom in Somalia and also have been targeted for killings, but it is unclear who is behind the killings.

Thousands of civilians have been killed in the fighting and hundreds of thousands have fled the capital. More than two million people are dependent on food aid in Somalia, and control of aid has often provoked fighting among Somalia's clan-based warlords.