Sudanese official held for two weeks by Darfur rebels

KHARTOUM, July 15 (AFP) — The speaker of South Darfur state legislature is among four people who have been held captive by ethnic minority rebels for nearly a fortnight, Sudan’s official media reported Friday.

Teenage Sudan Liberation Army fighters wearing amulets ( believed to bring good luck and protect against evil) smoke cigarettes and chat in the rebel held village of Bodong in North Darfur, March 3, 2005. (Reuters) .

Yagub Ibrahim Bolad was among 10 people seized by fighters of the Sudan Liberation Army as they returned to the state capital of Nyala on July 2 from a funeral 30 kilometres (20 miles) away in Higair Tuno, state radio and the official SUNA news agency said.

Six of the captives were later freed following appeals to the rebels by their families, the official media said, adding that those efforts were why news of the abductions had been withheld for so long.

The four remaining captives are believed to be held in an SLA camp in the Ladoub area, they added.

Nyala police commissioner Al-Maqbul Abdullah Abbaker condemned the abductions, which he said had been reported to peacekeepers from the African Union.

He said the AU force had so far been unable to do anything to secure the release of the remaining captives because of a troop rotation under way in the area.