UN envoys press Sudan on security after kidnap

Al-Fasher, SUDAN (AFP)
Hungarian peacekeeper kidnapped in Darfur

United Nations ambassadors pressed the Sudanese authorities to do more to ensure the safety of
aid workers and peacekeepers in Darfur on Friday after gunmen abducted a U.N. staffer.

The 15 Security Council envoys, in Darfur to express U.N. concern about renewing fighting between government troops and ethnic minority rebels in the western region, met North Darfur state Governor Othman Mohammed Yusef Kabbir.

Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, said the envoys had told Kabbir of their concern for the Hungarian employee of the joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur (UNAMID) who was kidnapped at nightfall on Thursday.

Concerns about security

“One of the reasons for the council being in Darfur was to highlight its underlying concern about security, including for aid workers and peacekeepers,” Lyall Grant said after the meeting.

Thursday’s abduction was the first to hit Darfur peacekeepers in al-Fasher, the region’s historic capital, although there have been thefts and carjacking in the past, a spokesman for the force said.

“He is of Hungarian origin,” UNAMID spokesman Kemal Saiki said of the kidnapped worker, without naming the man. He told AFP the car used in the abduction was found in the city after police launched an immediate manhunt.

“The vehicle was found in the city today,” he said. “Sudanese police have stepped up security at checkpoints in all al-Fasher.”

Saiki said four or five gunmen broke into a house where U.N. staff were based and abducted two of the four people there at the time.

“They tied them and took them away with one of the UNAMID cars that were there,” he said.

“As they were getting away, one of the UNAMID workers succeeded in escaping. He opened the door and jumped out.”

Saiki said it was unclear who was responsible for the kidnapping.

“We have no indication of the motives. We have no indication of their identities,” he said.

Bashir supporters

The peacekeeping force has around 1,000 foreign personnel in al-Fasher, 600 of them at a military base there.

Saiki said plans were afoot to move more of the staff into the base where security was better.

The British ambassador said he did not think the abduction was directly linked to the Security Council visit.

“It highlights the general security situation in al-Fasher and in Darfur,” Lyall Grant said.

For a second straight day, supporters of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir staged a noisy protest against the arrest warrant issued for him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide over his government’s handling of the Darfur conflict.

Some 200 demonstrators gathered outside the state government building where the U.N. envoys were meeting the governor, chanting “Down, down with the ICC.”

The governor accused the international community of politicizing the Darfur conflict and called on the Security Council ambassadors to take steps to adopt a more neutral stance.

Since ethnic minority rebels first rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime in 2003, about 300,200 people have died and 2.7 million people fled their homes, according to U.N. estimates.