Two UNHCR officials briefly abducted in Chad
Feb 7, 2006 (N’DJAMENA) — Two officials of U.N. refugee agency UNHCR were briefly abducted by gunmen and driven towards Sudan’s violent Darfur region, but were freed when their vehicle got a puncture, U.N. officials said on Tuesday.
Two armed assailants who said they were Sudanese abducted the head of the UNHCR office in the eastern town of Guereda and a colleague late on Monday and freed them a few hours later, a U.N. official in N’Djamena, who declined to be named, said.
In Geneva, UNHCR spokeswoman Helene Caux confirmed the abduction, calling it the latest incident involving aid workers in eastern Chad. She said the two employees were not mistreated.
“Two armed men entered the compound and forced them into a car. They drove about 15 km north of Guereda where they turned towards the Sudan border and had a double puncture,” she said.
The gunmen abandoned the two UNHCR officials and car “in the middle of nowhere”, but they were later recovered safe and sound, Caux said.
Unknown gunmen attacked Guereda last month and seized five government officials, prompting UNHCR and other aid agencies to pull around a fifth of their humanitarian staff out of the town.
“There is definitely a trend where humanitarian aid workers seem to be targeted more and more,” Caux said.
A range of U.N. and non-governmental organisations have offices across eastern Chad where they are helping some of the 200,000 Sudanese refugees who have fled fighting in Darfur.
Darfur’s conflict began in early 2003, pitting government forces and Arab horse and camel-riding militia against local rebels and villagers, and has uprooted more than 2 million people including many who fled to camps across the border in Chad.
The border area has long been subject to armed attacks in both directions, but violence has increased in recent months as groups of Chadian rebels and army deserters have intensified their efforts to topple Chad’s President Idriss Deby.
Deby accuses Sudan’s government of backing the rebels, sparking a diplomatic standoff between the neighbouring countries and adding to tensions on the volatile border.
(Reuters)