Oil workers still detained in remote Sudan – Darfur rebels
November 16, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Five kidnapped oil workers are still in captivity in a remote area of Sudan after a botched attempt to release them, their captors said on Friday.
The five men – three Sudanese, one Egyptian and one Iraqi – were abducted by Darfur rebels the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in an attack on an oil field in the Kordofan region, just east of war-torn Darfur, Oct. 23.
JEM said they handed the captives over to tribal elders who were supposed to pass the men on to the International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday. While the Red Cross confirmed it hadn’t yet been contacted.
But JEM commander Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr said on Friday the elders had returned with the captives after meeting heavily armed government patrols on their route. However he affirmed that the hostages are still in good health.
He said the tribal leaders were unable to advance any further because they thought they might be captured by the government troops. JEM was also unable to offer shelter, he said, because its soldiers had scattered across the heavily-mined area to evade attack.
“We are calling on the U.N. to intervene and take these people,” he said. “It is very important as I cannot guarantee their safety. There may be danger for these people.”
He said the hostages were near the remote settlement of al-Dbib, just over 70 km south east of the town of el-Muglad in west Kordofan, a region neighbouring Darfur.
Privately-owned independent Sudanese newspaper Al-Sudani reported on Friday tribal elders were demanding $500,000 and a number of satellite phones for the release of the captives. JEM dismissed the report as untrue.
There was no one immediately available for comment from Sudan’s military.
The five men had been working on the Defra oil installation, run by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company consortium. China’s CNPC has the biggest stake in the group alongside India’s ONGC, Malaysia’s Petronas and Sudan’s state-owned Sudapet.
JEM said it launched the attack to send a message to Chinese oil companiesbecause they supply weapons to Khartoum. The rebels had previously made the hostages’ release conditional on their employers’ withdrawal from working with the Khartoum government.
The oilfield produces more than half of Sudan’s output of some 500,000 barrels of oil a day, most of which is exported to China.
Beijing has often been accused of failing to exert pressure on Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir to stop the bloodshed in Darfur, where conflict has left at least 200,000 dead and displaced more than two million, according to U.N. figures.
(AFP/Reuters)