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| Africa Horn |
| Darfur Kidnappers release Sudanese aid workers |
| 2009-03-14 |
| Kidnappers in Darfur have released two local staff of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) but were still holding three foreigners abducted with them, its Belgian branch said Thursday. "Medecins Sans Frontieres confirms the abduction last night, of three international volunteers in Saraf Umra, in the Sudanese province of North Darfur. Two Sudanese personnel, captured at the same time, were quickly released," a statement said. "The three international volunteers, a Canadian nurse, an Italian doctor and a French official, work for the Belgian section of MSF." Five employees with the Belgian aid agency have been kidnapped in Darfur, relief agency officials said earlier. The office could not give further details about the number of staff involved, or circumstances of the incident but confirmed the abduction. "I can confirm the kidnap of three international employees and two local employees," an official with the group told AFP earlier. "They were kidnapped yesterday (Wednesday) in north Darfur," another official said, adding that the identity of the kidnappers was unknown. The French and Dutch chapters of MSF were among the groups ordered expelled from Darfur last week after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes over the six year-conflict in the region. The French and Dutch branches of MSF (Doctors Without Borders) were among 13 groups kicked out last week after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Bashir for war crimes over the six-year conflict in Darfur. The Sudanese government accuses the aid groups of cooperating with the ICC, which accuses Bashir of orchestrating a campaign of murder, torture, rape, forcible displacement and pillage in the vast largely desert western region. More than 180 foreign aid workers have since left Sudan, according to the United Nations, which has warned that hundreds of thousands of aid-dependent people were being put at risk. On Tuesday, the U.S. embassy in Khartoum said it was allowing non-essential staff to leave Sudan and had introduced "heightened security measures" after receiving information of "terrorist threats" aimed at Western interests in the country. |
| Posted by:Fred |