KHARTOUM (AFP) — Sudanese authorities were trying on Saturday to establish contact with kidnappers who snatched two foreign aid workers from their offices in Darfur, a foreign ministry official said.
Gunmen kidnapped the Irish and Ugandan women from the office of the Irish aid group Goal in the North Darfur city of Kutum on Friday night. A Sudanese watchman was also seized but later released.
"We have not established contact yet," said Ali Yusef, director of protocol at the foreign ministry. "Normally in this situation they move away from the scene" before making contact.
Flora Hillis, the head of Goal in Sudan, confirmed the relief group had not yet been contacted about the abduction.
She identified the Irish hostage as Sharon Commins and the Ugandan as Hilda Kawuki, and said the group had put its aid activities on hold to focus on freeing the hostages.
A spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army faction led by Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, an active Darfur rebel movement in the Kutum area, said his group was not involved and blamed Arab tribal gunmen for the kidnapping.
"Arab tribes supported by the government" were implicated, Ibrahim al-Hillu said.
Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamad said the authorities were hoping to free the hostages soon but provided no details. "We are doing our work and we will set free the two hostages in the next few hours."
And North Darfur North Darfur Governor Osman Yusef Kibir denied what he said were "rumours suggesting that the armed group 'The Eagles of Al-Beshir' has claimed responsibility for the abduction is false."
Friday's kidnapping was the third of foreign aid workers since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant on March 4 for Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
Following the arrest warrant, Sudan expelled 13 foreign non-governmental organisations from Darfur -- a decision vehemently criticised by the United Nations. Khartoum later allowed Western aid bodies in once again.
Four members of the Doctors Without Borders medical charity -- a Frenchman, a Canadian woman, an Italian and a Sudanese national -- were kidnapped on March 11 but were freed a few days later.
The Eagles of Al-Bashir had claimed responsibility for that abduction.
On April 4, a French woman and a Canadian woman who worked for Aide Medicale International (AMI), were seized in southern Darfur and were released unharmed three weeks later.
The kidnappers' identities and motives were unclear.
The men who seized the AMI workers called themselves the Falcons for the Liberation of Africa and said they were protesting another aid group's attempt to send Darfuri children to France.
They spoke to reporters by phone and allowed one of the hostages to conduct phone interviews.
The kidnapping of the MSF workers was blamed by the government on "bandits" who wanted a ransom. The government said no ransom was paid.
The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government and its militia allies, recruited among Arab tribesmen.
Since abortive peace talks in 2006, the rebellion has fragmented with some minority leaders reconciling with the government and some Arab tribes siding with rebel factions.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their since the conflict erupted. Sudan puts the death toll at 10,000.
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