Aid workers missing in Sudan
2002-07-30 12:23
Nairobi - A Kenyan employee of the humanitarian group World Vision has been killed and three colleagues, two Germans and another Kenyan, have gone missing in southern Sudan after an attack by armed men, a spokesperson for the charity said in Nairobi on Tuesday.
Charles Kibbe, a 46-year-old community health worker, was killed when the unidentified group attacked the World Vision camp in Waat, a small town in southeastern Sudan's Upper Nile state, which borders Ethiopia, on Monday, she added.
He is survived by his wife and three children.
The deceased and those missing are all men. A Kenyan woman who
survived the attack was evacuated to Nairobi and all World Vision
operations in Upper Nile have been suspended.
Earlier on Tuesday, the German foreign ministry said the two
Germans had been kidnapped, adding that a crisis unit had been set up to seek the release of the German pair from rebel captivity.
The reason for the abduction was unknown, but unconfirmed
reports said the kidnappers belonged to a group that had switched
allegiances between the southern rebels and the north-based
government several times.
World Vision runs a community health project in Waat.
Southern Sudan has for almost two decades been ravaged by civil war pitting the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army against the Islamic regime in Khartoum.
The two sides made a breakthrough after five weeks of talks in
Kenya earlier this month, and President Omar al-Beshir and SPLA
leader John Garang held their first ever meeting on Saturday in
Kampala.
On Monday, a senior government official in Khartoum said
fighting between the two sides appeared to have stopped. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA