Four Indian oil workers kidnapped in Sudan’s Abyei

May 15, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Four Indian oil technicians and their Sudanese driver have been abducted in an area adjoining Sudan’s disputed oil rich region of Abyei, the Indian ambassador to Sudan told AFP on Thursday.

“They were abducted in the late afternoon of May 13 while returning from Neem oil field to Heglig,” Deepak Vohra said. “We know where they are; they’re in good health.”

He said “the concerned people are talking to the abductors and we expect their release very soon.”

Vohra said it was the first time Indians have been kidnapped in Sudan and that he believed “local tribes” were responsible.

In the past, Darfur rebels have kidnapped foreign oil workers from Sudanese oilfields, often targeting Chinese companies because of their strong ties with Khartoum, although all of the abductees eventually emerged unscathed.

“We believe the abductors didn’t know they were Indian,” Vohra said. “They’re in good condition, they’re in fine fettle.”

The captives, all men in their 30s, work for Petro Energy Contracting Services, which provides technical services to the oil industry. The company employs 75 Indians in Sudan.

The ambassador said the men were travelling in a single vehicle when “they were surrounded.”

He said he did not know if the abductors were armed but that he thought they had been taken to a village about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the main Neem-Heglig road.

On Thursday, the United Nations evacuated its total civilian staff of 259 people from Abyei after two days of clashes between the army and southern ex-rebels.

Violence has continued in Abyei, flouting UN calls on the Sudanese armed forces and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which fought a two-decade civil war with Khartoum until a 2005 peace agreement, to cease hostilities.

The town lies at the centre of a district on the border between north and south Sudan and its oil wealth is bitterly contested by the two sides.

An impasse over the area is one of the key stumbling blocks that has delayed implementation of the peace deal.

The SPLM accuses President Omar al-Beshir’s National Congress of failing to implement a special protocol to govern Abyei during a key transition period.

In 2011, Abyei will hold a referendum on whether to retain its special administrative status in the north or be incorporated into the south; and a second one on whether the south should break away as an independent state.

The region is prey to sporadic violence between tribes who are aligned either with the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum or with the ex-rebel administration in the south.

(AFP)