Chinese firms warned against security situation in Sudan

January 30, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – China’s Ministry of Commerce has warned Chinese companies of security risks in Sudan after the kidnapping of Chinese workers in South Kordofan region.

“Chinese companies should closely monitor changes in the country’s security situation and take stronger precautions to ensure the safety of lives and property” the ministry said in a statement reported on Monday by Xinhua, China’s official news agency.

The ministry’s note of caution comes in the wake of the kidnapping on Saturday of 29 Chinese construction workers in Sudan’s southern state of South Kordofan following an attack by rebel fighters of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLMN).

South Kordofan’s governor, Ahmad Haroun, said army forces had managed to rescue 14 of the kidnapped workers and they are in good health.

However, a Chinese diplomat in Khartoum was quoted by Xinhua as saying that the fate of the 29 workers remains unclear.

The diplomat further said that the Chinese embassy to Sudan had sent a four-person work group to assist Sudanese authorities in rescuing the workers.

Yasir Arman, the SPLMN’s secretary-general, said in a statement released Monday that they were in contact with their forces on the ground in order to secure release of the kidnapped workers, stressing that their group has nothing against China.

This is not the first time Chinese nationals suffer adversity in Sudan. In 2008, five Chinese oil workers were abducted in South Kordofan and later killed after a botched rescue operation by the Sudanese army.

South Kordofan has since been the scene of a conflict between the Sudanese army and SPLMN rebels who fought as part of South Sudan’s army before the south seceded to form an independent state in July last year.

(ST)