Aid workers kidnapped in DRC
2005-06-03 12:48
Geneva - Two employees of the aid charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) have been kidnapped by armed men in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) while they were on their way to a camp in the troubled northeastern region of Ituri, MSF said on Friday.
MSF (Doctors Without Borders) said in a statement it had not heard from the two men, a French aid worker and a DRC driver, since Thursday.
"Witnesses say they saw them being stopped and led away on foot by a group of unidentified armed men to an unknown destination," the statement added.
Thirty-seven expatriates and 600 national employees are working for MSF in Ituri, including in the camp for displaced people at Jina, about 35km north of the provincial capital, Bunia.
Four United Nations (UN) peacekeepers were wounded on Thursday in the Djugu region when their helicopters came under fire about 30km north of Bunia, the UN mission said.