Puntland, (insidesomalia.org) - A German child who was kidnapped by Somali gunmen along with his parents and another European is suffering from a fever and needs medical help, a clan elder said Wednesday.

The elder, who is helping negotiate with the kidnappers, said he was arranging to have a nurse visit the boy, whose age was not immediately clear.

"The boy is in bad shape and developed fever either from the mosquito bites or the hostile environment," said Aqil Abshir Qadi, who is one of Somalia's respected clan elders. Speaking by telephone from Puntland, a semiautonomous region of northern Somalia, Qadi said he had met with the captives, the German family and a French boat captain.

They were kidnapped Monday from a yacht off the Gulf of Aden, officials said. On Tuesday, Jama Hirsi Farah, minister of state for security in the region, said security forces were also trying to rescue the captives.

Kidnappings and piracy are on the rise in Somalia, where hijackers demand — and often receive - huge ransoms. The 1,880-mile-long (3,000-kilometer-long) coast, the longest in Africa, is overrun with pirates.

On Saturday, a Somali employee of the U.N. refugee agency was kidnapped outside the capital, Mogadishu.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew Dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and turned on each other. Since Somalia does not have a navy, France and the U.S. are drafting a U.N. resolution that would allow international naval vessels into Somali waters.

Thousands of civilians have been killed in Somalia since 2007, caught in vicious disputes over ancient clan loyalties, religion and government.

Somalia's shaky transitional administration was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but has failed to assert real control. After Islamic militants seized control of Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia, the government called in troops from Ethiopia in December 2006 to oust them.

An insurgency started soon afterward, and remains a potent and disruptive force. Rebels set land mines and attack police posts and the Ethiopian troops respond with deadly force, witnesses say.

The country also is facing a worsening humanitarian crisis aggravated by high global food prices and drought.