Red Cross confirms kidnapping of staff in Sudan

March 6, 1999
Web posted at: 3:56 p.m. EST (2056 GMT)

KHARTOUM, Sudan (CNN) -- Rebels in southern Sudan are holding several people hostage, including two Swiss workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross, Sudanese and ICRC officials said Saturday.

Accounts differed as to how many were being held and when the kidnapping took place. The Red Cross said six people were taken hostage on February 18, while Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said seven people were kidnapped a week ago.

"Two ICRC delegates of Swiss nationality, along with one member of the Sudanese Red Crescent, were detained by armed men in southern Sudan with three local government officials," ICRC spokesman Juan Martinez said from Switzerland.

The captors have not made specific demands for the release of the captives, although negotiations are under way to try to free them, Martinez said.

The kidnapping took place near the town of Bentiu, 800 kilometers (500 miles) south of Khartoum, where the ICRC workers were studying the need for seed distribution in the region, Martinez said.

"We know approximately where they are, and we are in discussions with the people who are guarding them. As the discussions are going in the right way, it makes it quite difficult to say too much about the situation," Martinez said.

Ismail said the government did not announce the kidnapping earlier because it wanted to give the ICRC the chance to try to free them. "But nothing happened even after the event went unmentioned for seven days now," he added.

The ICRC resumed operations in Sudan last year after an 18-month break sparked by a previous kidnapping of its staff members.

The Sudan People's Liberation Army has been waging a war since 1983 for autonomy in the predominantly Christian, African and animist south.

An estimated 1.9 million people have died in the fighting and related famines.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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