Darfur rebels free aid workers
2004-06-06 13:16
Khartoum - Sixteen UN aid workers abducted by ethnic minority rebels in Sudan's restive western region of Darfur have been freed by their captors, sources close to the world body told AFP in Khartoum.
An official announcement was expected during the day, the source said, adding that three of the United Nations Development Programme staff were foreigners - from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ireland and Malawi - and the rest Sudanese.
The circumstances of their release were not immediately known.
The aid workers had been seized at Malit East, in North Darfur State, on Saturday by rebels of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), Sudanese minister of state for foreign affairs, Nejib al-Khari Abdel Wahab, said.
A UN spokesperson in Nairobi had declined to confirm or deny the abduction. Khartoum - Sixteen UN aid workers abducted by ethnic minority rebels in Sudan's restive western region of Darfur have been freed by their captors, sources close to the world body told AFP in Khartoum.
An official announcement was expected during the day, the source said, adding that three of the United Nations Development Programme staff were foreigners - from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ireland and Malawi - and the rest Sudanese.
The circumstances of their release were not immediately known.
The aid workers had been seized at Malit East, in North Darfur State, on Saturday by rebels of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), Sudanese minister of state for foreign affairs, Nejib al-Khari Abdel Wahab, said.
A UN spokesperson in Nairobi had declined to confirm or deny the abduction.