French aid workers freed in Darfur after months captivity

March 14, 2010 (PARIS) — Olivier Denis and Olivier Frappe, workers for the French aid organization Triangle, were released in Darfur after months in captivity.

The pair arrived late Sunday in Khartoum via an airplane flight arranged by the International Committee of the Red Cross. They had been held hostage since their abduction at Birao town in Central African Republic (CAR) on November 22, 2009. The town is at the nexus of Chad, Sudan and CAR.

“My first thoughts go to our countrymen who have passed through this trial,” said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. “I fully share the happiness of their families, their loved ones, and the NGO professionals with whom the crisis centre of the Minister of Foreign Affairs was in contact since the abduction.”

The kidnappers, purportedly a group called the African Free Eagles, had also taken a Red Cross agronomist hostage on November 9.

Laurent Maurice, the Red Cross hostage, was freed last month. Upon Maurice’s release, French Presidential Advisor for African Affairs André Parant flew to Khartoum and met Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir in his office with the former hostage. European Union rules prohibit EU officials from meeting with individuals indicted by the International Criminal Court, of whom Bashir is one since March 2009.

African Free Eagles first struck last year in April when they captured two women aid workers of the French NGO Aide Medical International. Also in that month, a different pair of Triangle aid workers were kidnapped and released in West Darfur.

Abdel Baqi Gilani, Minister of State for Humanitarian Affairs, told Agence France-Presse that the kidnappers will be pursued by the law. “We’ll bring them to justice,” he said. “We want to eradicate this culture (of kidnapping) which is not ours.”

Another French aid worker still remains in the hands of kidnappers in Sudan. French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a statement today called for the release of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) worker Gauthier Lefevre, who was abducted in West Darfur last October.

Triangle Generation Humanitaire has programmes in Darfur employing a handful of expatriates and some 100 national staff work.

(ST)