Sudanese refugees briefly detain Darfur aid workers – UN
Oct 25, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese refugees released 15 aid workers they had detained in a crowded displaced people’s camp in the violent western Darfur region, the United Nations said Tuesday. But five Sudanese nongovernment organization employees are still being held.
U.N. spokesman George Somerwill said the workers were abducted Sunday inside the vast Kalma refugee camp in South Darfur city of Nyala.
Intensive efforts to release the hostages began immediately after the abductions were reported, Somerwill said. No details were available on the nationalities of the released workers.
The refugees abducted the aid workers in retaliation for the government’s recent arrest of a popular tribal sheik in the camp, Somerwill added.
No details on the sheik nor why he was arrested have been made available. Sudanese officials were not immediately available for comment.
Lorenda Brander, Sudan-based official for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the standoff began after refugees chased employees from a government-run water facility into a clinic run by the Spanish Red Cross and the Sudanese Red Crescent.
“The mob was angered by the arrest of the sheik and surrounded the clinic and stopped the people inside leaving from Sunday until Monday,” Brander told The Associated Press.
Darfur has been the scene of fierce fighting since February 2003 when two African rebel groups took up arms against the Sudanese government amid accusations of repression and unfair distribution of wealth.
The government has been accused of supporting Arab nomads known as the Janjaweed, who have been blamed for a campaign of killings, rape and arson. The U.N. estimates that 180,000 people have died, mainly through famine and disease. The Sudanese government denies backing the Janjaweed.
(AP/ST)