18 AU workers kidnapped in Darfur by dissidents of rebel JEM
Oct 9, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Dissident faction of the rebel JEM have taken 18 African Union (AU) personnel hostage in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region, a day after the first AU soldiers were killed in the remote area, officials said on Sunday.
The hostages were being held in the Chadian-Sudanese border town of Tine in North Darfur state, said Jean Baptiste Natama, the acting head of the AU in Sudan.
About 6,000 AU troops are deployed to monitor a shaky ceasefire in Darfur but violence has escalated in recent weeks, prompting the 53-nation body last week to voice its harshest public criticism of Darfur rebels and the Sudanese government.
“18 (AU) personnel including military observers, civilian police, a U.S. representative and a Justice and Equality Movement (rebel) representative are held hostage today,” Natama told Reuters.
A spokesman at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa said the kidnappers were a dissident faction from the JEM rebel group.
“We are worried by the two incidents — the killing of the two soldiers and the taking of hostages. We are worried because this is targeting the AU as a fighting force, although the AU is there as a peace force,” spokesman Adam Thiam said.
AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare has called for the immediate release of the hostages.
“They were taken by a dissident group of JEM,” Thiam said.
AMBUSH
On Saturday, two Nigerian AU soldiers and two civilian contractors were killed in an ambush the AU blamed on the main Darfur rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).
On Sunday, an AU spokesman in Khartoum said a third Nigerian soldier had died from his injuries after being shot in the neck during the attack. They were the AU’s first casualties in more than a year of operations in Darfur.
The two main rebel groups, JEM and SLA, are in AU-sponsored peace talks with the Khartoum government in the Nigerian capital Abuja. But negotiations have faltered in recent weeks after an upsurge of violence in the arid region.
Rebel divisions have also plagued the Abuja talks, now in their 6th round.
An AU statement said peacekeepers who survived Saturday’s ambush clearly identified SLA uniforms and vehicles, and the attack happened in an area controlled by the rebel group.
Two soldiers were still missing following the attack, it said. Three others were injured.
Non-Arab rebels took up arms in Darfur in early 2003 accusing the central government of neglect and of monopolising power and wealth.
Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2 million forced from their homes by the violence, which the United States calls genocide.
Khartoum denies genocide, but the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in Darfur.
(Reuters/ST)