Christian aid workers abducted by rebels in Darfur

By PAUL GARWOOD

CAIRO, Jan 26, 2005 (AP) –Three Sudanese men working for an American Christian aid agency have been abducted in the volatile Darfur region and the group pleaded Wednesday for their release.

Sudanese woman exits a medical consultation after receiving attention at a Save the Children/US Aid Clinic in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region. (AFP)..

The men, employed by the Maryland-based Adventist Development and Relief Agency International, were abducted Dec. 16 in Labado, a town in then rebel-held territory in South Darfur, one of three states where violence has raged for 23 months.

The workers, part of a well-drilling team, had permission to enter the area but were “abducted at gunpoint along with (three) ADRA project vehicles” while traveling from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, to West Darfur state, an agency statement said.

“We are alarmed and deeply concerned for the safety of our workers,” ADRA International senior vice president Byron L. Scheuneman said in the statement. “We don’t know exactly who abducted them, and we’ve received no information on their whereabouts or condition.”

Scheuneman urged the men’s abductors to release them unharmed and said the Khartoum office of his organization, which has been based in Sudan for 25 years, has been liaising with the United Nations to secure their release.

“The United Nations has sent their usual feelers out to the different militia factions but they haven’t come back with any information about the abducted workers,” said ADRA spokeswoman Tereza Byrne.

A U.N. spokesman in Khartoum, speaking on condition of anonymity, that his organization was aware of the abductions.

The day after the abductions, fierce fighting broke out in Labado, with government forces overrunning rebel fighters and eventually taking control of the town of 27,000 people.

International medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres has said one of its Sudanese aid workers was shot dead by government troops during the fighting.

There is no official reckoning of the overall toll of the Darfur conflict, which was sparked in February 2003 when two non-Arab African rebel groups took up arms to fight for more power and resources from the Arab-dominated Khartoum government.

The government responded by backing an Arab militia known as the Janjaweed, which is accused of targeting civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson. The United States accuses the Janjaweed of committing genocide.

Disease and hunger have killed 70,000 in Darfur region since last March, the World Health Organization says. More than 2 million are believed to have fled their homes since the start of the crisis.