Sudan confirms 5 engineers abducted in attack on oilfield

November 1, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Five engineers have been abducted in an attack on an oilfield neighboring the troubled western Sudanese region of Darfur last week, Sudanese Minister of Justice Mohammed Ali al-Mardi said on Thursday.

Al-Mardi told reporters that the five persons were three Sudanese, one Iraqi and one Egyptian.

This was the first time for the Sudanese government to confirm the attack taking place on Oct. 23, when a rebel movement in Darfur has claimed its responsibility for the abduction.

Besides the five persons, three vehicles were also seized in the attack launched by a group of militants armed with Kalashnikov rifles on Defra Oilfield in Kordofan, the Sudanese minister said.

Initial investigations had found out that the armed group was led by Abu Ahmed Adem, who belongs to a rebel movement in Darfur, he said, noting that the same person carried out an attack on a vehicle of the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur on Oct. 28, wounding three persons.

The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), one of the major rebel movements in Darfur, has claimed responsibility for the attack, demanding a withdrawal of foreign petroleum companies from Sudan.

It said that four of the five oil workers it had kidnapped, including the Iraqi and Egyptian engineers, were working for the world’s largest oil services company Schlumberger and the fifth one for part-owned Malaysian Petroneed.

(Xinhua)