Gunmen near Somalia's capital have seized two freelance reporters, including a Canadian.

The Red Deer Advocate newspaper has confirmed that Amanda Lindhout, whose family lives in Alberta, is one of the kidnapped journalists.

Lindhout and an unidentified Australian were apparently captured as they travelled to a refugee camp in Elasha, about 18 kilometres southwest of Mogadishu.

"We don't know if it's political or a money issue," said Leonard Vincent, a spokesperson for Reporters Without Borders, told CTV Newsnet by phone from Paris.

He said officials would first have to determine which clan may be responsible for the kidnapping.

Foreign affairs expert Eric Margolis said the abduction of foreigners is a grave problem in Somalia.

"Somalia has got to be the most dangerous and probably lawless place that I can think of," he told CTVNewsnet. "It's been in chaos for over a decade."

Margolis said the situation has dissolved into civil war with fighting between local clans and tribes, making Somalia, and particularly Mogadishu, "extremely dangerous."

"Even foreign aid workers who've come in to try and help have become victims or have been kidnapped or killed and now these two journalists (are) the latest victims of the waves of kidnapping and killing that have been going on for so long," he said.

Somalia's economy has "completely broken down" said Margolis. Kidnapping, piracy and the smuggling of the narcotic shrub known as khat have become the main sources of income.

Canada sent one of its warships to patrol off the coast of Somalia and international flotillas are keeping watch, but it's not the solution, he said.

The last form of stable government in South Somalia was a group of moderate Islamists called the Islamic Court Union, said Margolis. But the U.S., worried that it was an extremist government, aided Somalia's neighbour Ethiopia in invading the country.

"So on top of chaos clan and tribal warfare you have this Ethiopian invasion which is being violently resisted by the Somalis and has caused huge numbers of refugees and many deaths," he said.

Some observers have called the situation worse than Darfur, he said.

Margolis said the U.S. and the rest of the Western world will not succeed in bringing stability to the region.

"There has to be a massive influx of some neutral foreign military force."

He gave the Egyptian and Turkish militaries as examples. However, he is not optimistic they would tackle the problem.

"No one wants to get involved in this absolute disaster area of a country."

With files from The Associated Press