The UN secretary-general has demanded the immediate release of a senior relief official abducted in Somalia.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) suspended aid distribution to more than 75,000 people in Mogadishu on Wednesday after government forces raided its compound and abducted Idris Osman, who heads the programme in the capital.

Ban Ki-moon called the entry of dozens of heavily armed attackers into the UN compound “forceful and illegal”.

A statement from the UN said: “WFP is forced immediately to suspend these distributions and the loading of WFP food from our warehouses in the Somali capital.

It said the move came “in the light of Mr Osman’s detention and in view of WFP’s duty to safeguard its staff”.