Three Latvian crewmen abducted in Darfur, peacekeeper injured
November 05, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – Three Latvian crewmen of a helicopter contracted by the World Food Program (WFP) have been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in Sudan’s troubled western region of Darfur, where fighting between the Sudanese government and rebels flared up earlier this week.
The same report quoted South Darfur governor Abd-al-Hamid Musa Kasha as saying that the state’s security agents had tried to search for the kidnappers but their efforts went to no avail. Kasha said that
According to UN sources quoted by AFP, the crew was made up of two pilots and a mechanic.
With this latest case of kidnapping, the number of foreigners currently held captive in Darfur has risen to four after a Hungarian staff member of the United Nation-African Union Hybrid Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) was abducted at gunpoint in early October from his place of residence in Al-Fashir, the provincial capital of North Darfur State.
Darfur region has begun to witness a high incidence of kidnappings of foreign workers for ransom since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for President Al-Bashir in 2003 on counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
So far 27 foreigners were kidnapped in Darfur, all released later unharmed amid rumors of ransoms being paid to secure their release.
In a related development, a solider serving with UNAMID has been wounded in a shootout with unknown armed men, 3 kilometers north east of Kutum in North Darfur, according to yesterday’s UNAMID daily briefing as seen by Sudan Tribune.
The mission said that the assailing group fled the area when UNAMID peacekeepers fired back at them. The mission said that the wounded peacekeepers was hospitalized at the mission’s hospital in Al-Fashir and was now in a stable condition.
Clashes between government forces and rebels from the Justice and Equality movement in south Darfur earlier this week left 26 policemen dead and claimed the lives of unconfirmed number of rebels.
Sudan’s westernmost region of Darfur came to the fore in 2003 when rebels belonging mostly to African ethnic groups in the region took up arms against the central government in Khartoum, accusing it of marginalizing the region.
An abusive counterinsurgency by Khartoum has sparked one of the world’s worst humanitarian situation where as many as 300.000 died and millions fled their homes into displacement camps, according to UN figures.
(ST)