Rebels free aid workers in stricken Darfur

Ewen MacAskill
Monday June 7, 2004

The Guardian

Sudanese rebels released 16 UN and other aid workers yesterday who were kidnapped on Friday in Darfur province, where a huge international effort to prevent a human disaster is under way.
They were seized by the Sudan Liberation Army in Mellit, 30 miles north of al-Fasher, the provincial capital. An estimated 300,000 people in the province are at risk unless a steady flow of aid gets through in the next few months.

The US, the UN and aid agencies have accused the Sudanese government of hampering the delivery of food and medical supplies. The government blames the rebels, and the kidnapping came as a propaganda gift to ministers.

Naguib Khair, a foreign affairs minister, said: "We, the Sudanese government, condemn and reject the abduction. We feel sorry for it and for exposing the lives of the United Nations and humanitarian aid workers to danger."

The three expatriates and 13 local staff were in a convoy of vehicles marked with the UN logo. Among the organisations represented were the UN World Food Programme and the UN Children's Fund.

The UN contacted Minni Acrua Minnawi, secretary general of the SLA, who said they had wandered into rebel-held territory, and one of them was suspected of working for the Sudanese government.

The SLA is one of the two main rebel groups in the region bordering Chad, where Arab nomadic tribes have traditionally vied with African farming communities for scarce resources.

Until two weeks ago the Sudanese government required aid workers to apply for permission to enter Darfur.

Aid agencies complained that this slowed up their work, and the measure was lifted.

But the UN emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, said new bureaucratic obstructions had been put in place.

They included an insistence that all medical supplies entering the country must be tested in Sudanese laboratories, and all food and other supplies must be carried on Sudanese trucks and distributed by Sudanese charities or government agencies.

Western diplomats say the government is afraid that the supplies may end up in rebel hands.

It agreed a ceasefire with the rebels in Darfur in April but fighting has continued, as has the flow of refugees.

Mr Khair said the kidnapping was "not in keeping with the spirit of the agreement that the government and the rebels signed to provide guarantees for those working for the United Nations and other non- governmental organisations".

"We also believe this to be a dangerous escalation."

The conflict in Darfur worsened last year when the government armed Arab militias to counter the rebels.

Their vicious campaign against civilians has killed an estimated 30,000, displaced 1.2m in Darfur, and sent a further 100,000 fleeing into Chad.