Ethiopian Review

IRISH diplomats and negotiators flew into Khartoum on Sunday to help in efforts to free two female aid workers, a Ugandan and an Irish, kidnapped in Sudan’s Darfur region.

The two women from the Irish aid group, GOAL, were abducted from their compound in the north Darfur town of Kutum late on Friday – the third time foreign humanitarian workers have been seized in Darfur in four months.

GOAL has named the kidnapped women as Hilda Kawuki, 42, from Uganda, and Sharon Commins, 32, from Dublin.

They were taken hostage by around six armed men. There were no more details given about the Ugandan woman.

The Irish delegation, including the country’s ambassador to Egypt, Gerard Corr and officials from its department of foreign affairs, arrived at Khartoum airport early yesterday morning.

“This is a very high level delegation that is here to negotiate and do everything that is possible to free the hostages,” said Ireland’s honorary consul in Khartoum Ronnie Shaoul as he waited at the airport.

“They will be meeting the Ugandan ambassador and officials from all the appropriate ministries. We have had a lot of support from officials here.” He added that the team included trained negotiators.

The aid group’s country representative in Sudan, Flora Hillis, told Reuters she had heard nothing from the kidnappers or her staff, two days since the abduction.

The Sudanese authorities were over the weekend trying to establish contact with the kidnappers, a foreign ministry official said.

“We have not established contact yet,” said Ali Yusef, director of protocol at the foreign ministry. “Normally in this situation they move away from the scene” before making contact.

Interior minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamad said the authorities were hoping to free the hostages soon but provided no details. “We are doing our work and we will set free the two hostages in the next few hours.”

A spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army faction led by Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, a rebel movement in the Kutum area, said his group was not involved and blamed Arab tribal gunmen for the kidnapping. “Arab tribes supported by the government” were implicated, Ibrahim al-Hillu said.

- New Vision