Gunmen abduct two aid workers in Darfur

July 3, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — Unknown armed men kidnapped on Friday two female aid workers belonging to an Irish nongovernmental organization in the troubled Sudanese province.

The two Irish and Ugandan women who are working with GOAL have been captured from their compound in Kutum in North Darfur on Friday evening.

A Sudanese guard working with the Irish aid group was released later after being abducted with the two women by the unidentified gunmen.

“UNAMID is deeply concerned and appeals on the kidnappers to release these two aid workers who are in Darfur to help its population,” said the spokesperson of the peacekeeping mission Noureddine Mezni, in an email sent to Sudan Tribune confirming the capture of the aid worker.

Goal is present in Kutum, 200 klm from the border with Chad, since February 2004 implementing emergency humanitarian programmes. The Irish group distributes seeds and constructs pit latrines and wells for thousands of displaced civilians affected by the conflict.

Today’s kidnapping is the third since a decision by the International criminal Court to arrest the Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

In April a group called the Falcons for liberation of African seized two women aid workers from the French Aide Medicale Internationale. The kidnappers operated in the same way as today abduction, they captured the two women from their compound in Ed El-Fursan in South Darfur.

Following the government decision to expel 13 foreign aid groups working in the country on March 4, unknown gunmen abducted five aid workers from Médecins Sans Frontières Belgium.

Darfur rebels accused in the past the Sudanese security service of the kidnapping of the aid workers saying it aims to destabilize the foreign NGOs by increasing the feeling of insecurity. However, Sudanese government had regularly condemned these attacks on the aid workers and intervened to free them.

(ST)