Kidnapped Chinese engineer released in Sudan’s Darfur

September 17, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — A Chinese engineer kidnapped last week in Chad near Sudan’s border had been released today, Sudanese army and former Darfur rebel group announced Friday.

The engineer was captured in the Chadian region of Ennedi, less than ten kilometers from the border with Sudan, where he was working on a project to supply water to the town of Am-Djarass.

“The Joint Sudanese-Chadian forces have managed on mid-Friday to free the Chinese worker who was abducted by a Chadian group days ago and led into the Sudanese borders,” Sudan Armed Forces spokesperson Al-Sawarmy Khaled said in a statement released Friday evening.

Meanwhile, the former rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), led by Minni Arko Minnawi, earlier today announced their group had handed over the Chinese engineer to the joint force at Um Baro area in North Darfur State after freeing him from the kidnappers.

“The Chinese engineer was freed without resort to violence. The kidnapers fled and left the Chinese hostage when they saw our forces,” said Zunoon Suleiman, spokesperson of SLM-Minnawi.

No details are available about the identity of the abductors who took their hostage into the restive region of Darfur.

The Sudanese army spokesperson said the Chinese engineer has been transported to Ndjamena at a request by the Chadian President Idris Deby,” stressing that “the Chinese worker is in a good health.

Sudan and Chad formed a joint force last February to monitor the joint border in a bid to curb the activities of the rebel groups across the border. Recently the command of the force was transferred to the Chadian army.

(ST)