Khartoum, July 05: Sudanese authorities are trying to establish contact with kidnappers who snatched two foreign aid workers from their offices in the Darfur region.
Gunmen kidnapped an Irish and a Ugandan woman from the office of the Irish aid group Goal in the North Darfur city of Kutum on Friday night. A Sudanese watchman was also seized before being released later.
“We have not established contact yet,” said Ali Yusef, Director of Protocol at the Foreign Ministry. “Normally in this situation they move away from the scene before making contact.”
Flora Hillis, the Head of Goal in Sudan, confirmed the relief group had not yet been contacted about the abduction.
She identified the Irish hostage as Sharon Commins and the Ugandan as Hilda Kawuki, and said the group had put its aid activities on hold to focus on the release of the hostages.
A spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army faction led by Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, an active Darfur rebel movement in the Kutum area, said his group was not involved and blamed Arab tribal gunmen for the kidnapping.
Friday’s kidnapping was the third such act directed at foreign aid workers since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant on March 4 for the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
Following the arrest warrant, Sudan expelled 13 foreign non-governmental organizations from Darfur — a decision vehemently criticized by the United Nations. Khartoum later allowed Western aid agencies to enter the country once again.
The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government and its militia allies, recruited from Arab tribesmen.
Since the abortive peace talks in 2006, the rebellion has fragmented with some minority leaders reconciling with the government and some Arab tribes siding with rebel factions.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled since the conflict erupted. Sudan puts the death toll at 10,000.
—–Agencies