More than 500 kidnap victims in Sudan reunited with families in past year

KHARTOUM, Sept 16 (AFP) — More than 500 kidnap victims in Sudan have been reunited with the families over the past 12 months, a government-sponsored, internationally-funded committee said Tuesday.

Ahmed al-Mufti, chairman of the Committee for Eradication of Abduction of Women and Children, quoted by the state news agency SUNA, said 506 people had been returned to their families between last September and August 2003.

Those released through the work of the committee included women and children believed abducted by Arab tribes.

The operation was partly financed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), European Union and a Swedish children’s welfare group, said Mufti. Almost 200 kidnap victims were flown home to rebel-held areas in south Sudan.

The Khartoum government regularly denies the practice of slavery in Sudan, while acknowledging that kidnappings of women and children are rife, mostly in the South Darfur and West Kordofan regions.