LILONGWE, Jan. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Malawi has instituted an investigation into the kidnapping of a Malawian telecommunication engineer believed to have been abducted by armed gunmen in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, Wednesday morning.

    "We are investigating the issue and will do everything we can as government to secure his release," Malawi's Information Minister and government spokesperson Patricia Kaliati told the press here.

    Kaliati said the government did not have details of what happened to the unidentified telecoms engineer reportedly to have been seized alongside his colleague from Madagascar.

    She said Malawi did not have official diplomatic ties with Iraq and had no official exchange program of experts with it.

    The Malawian engineer and his colleague were abducted by gunmen as they attacked their convoy of three vehicles in the western Baghdad suburb of Abu Gharib.

    The Iraq Interior Ministry told international media that the gunmen killed six Iraqi guards during the attack on the convoy before abducting the two engineers who were working for the country's telecoms company, Iraqna, a subsidiary of the Egyptian-owned Orascom Telecom.

    Although the Malawi government does not send professionals to work in Iraq, a number of Malawian telecommunication and construction engineers have privately secured high-paying jobs in the war-torn country. Enditem