EU welcomes release of Latvian pilots in Darfur
December 9, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The European Commission on Thursday welcomed the release of three Latvian pilots who were kidnapped in South Darfur last November.
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 Omer Hassan Al-Bashir in 2009 on counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The circumstances of their release are still unknown, a WFP spokeswoman in Sudan said adding that no ransom was paid to secure their freedom.
The governor of South Darfur Abdel-Hameed Kasha told reporters that Sudanese security carried out the operation in conjunction with local authorities without any casualties or injuries. He commended the “professionalism” of security officers and reiterated that no money was paid for the release.
The EU issued a statement today lauding the release of the pilots.
“We welcome the liberation of Captain Artjoms Nalbandjans, co-pilot Janis Gindra and mechanic Kaspars Reihlers, who had been taken hostage in Darfur, Sudan, while working for the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS). The release of the three humanitarian workers came as a great relief for the EU and for Latvia” said the European Commissioners for Development Andris Piebalgs and International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva in a joint statement.
“We want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the great work that is being done by humanitarian aid workers around the world, sometimes in extreme conditions. We must strengthen African and EU joint efforts to tackle the root causes of disasters and poverty and to ensure security, as we do in Sudan”.
The kidnapping of the Latvians came as Valerie Amos, the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, began a five-day visit to Sudan that was scheduled to include Nyala.
Last August, an armed group abducted two Russian pilots from Nyala and two Jordanian police advisers deployed with UNAMID were kidnapped at gunpoint.
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)