Sudan: Three Russian pilots kidnapped

  1. Posted on Friday 5 November 2010 - 14:26
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    John Afful Jnr, AfricaNews reporter in Takoradi, Ghana
    Three Russian pilots working for the UN World Food Programme have been kidnapped in Darfur, in Sudan, the South governor Abdel Hamid Kasha said on Friday.
    SUDAN - Darfur rebel leaders surrender to ICC
    "Yesterday there were three Russian helicopter pilots kidnapped by unknown men and the security people are chasing them," Kasha told Reuters from Nyala, the centre of a spate of recent kidnaps by men demanding ransom.

    He said, the pilots were taken from a minibus in the centre of the town on Thursday about two hours before sundown and it was not known who the kidnappers were and that they were being pursued.

    The UN World Food Programme has also confirmed the three pilots contracted to them had been kidnapped in Nyala on Thursday but could not give further details.

    This is the latest in a series of kidnappings of foreign aid workers in Darfur in recent months. Ransoms are usually demanded.

    Russia directed rare criticism at ally Sudan for being unable to stop the kidnapping of foreigners for money in the war-torn Darfur region.

    Since President Omar al-Bashir was indicted in 2009 by the International Criminal Court for war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur, the situation for humanitarian workers has greatly deteriorated.

    The United Nations estimates some 300,000 people have died since fighting began in 2003, and some 2.7 million people have fled their homes as a result of the conflict.

    Rebel movements in Darfur have been fighting government soldiers and Arab militias, backed by Khartoum.

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