THE SUDANESE government is liaising with tribal elders in Darfur in an effort to locate the whereabouts of an Irish aid worker and her Ugandan colleague following their abduction in the restive region last week.
Sharon Commins (32), from Clontarf, Dublin, and Hilda Kuwuki (42), both of whom work for Irish aid agency Goal, were seized by up to eight armed men who forced their way into the Goal compound in the north Darfur town of Kutum on Friday evening.
The kidnapping marks the third time foreign humanitarian workers have been abducted in Darfur in four months. Two groups of aid personnel kidnapped in March and April were released unharmed.
“We are following the same procedures as in previous abductions, including meeting with local tribal leaders to gather information as to their possible whereabouts,” Ali Yusef, director of protocol at the Sudanese foreign ministry, said from the capital, Khartoum, last night.
“The government knows how to reach a peaceful resolution because unfortunately we have some previous experience of this sort of case.”
Mr Yusef, who has met with the delegation of Irish diplomats and negotiators that travelled to Sudan to assist in efforts to secure the release of the two women, said there was as yet no information as to the identity or motive of those responsible.
Sudan’s ambassador to the UK, Omer Mohamed Ahmed Siddig, stressed that the safety of the two women was paramount. “The government is doing its utmost to locate the two ladies. All law enforcement bodies, police, army, local authorities in the tribal areas are all mobilised to get information so we can know and locate their whereabouts. What is important is the safe and dignified release of the ladies,” he said.
Mr Siddig, who arrives in Dublin later today for a pre-planned official visit, said he hoped to meet Ms Commins’s family during his time here.
Sudan’s minister for humanitarian affairs, Abdul-Bagi Al-Jailani, said his government utterly condemned the kidnapping. “I apologise on behalf of the people of Sudan,” he said in a telephone interview. “This is a scandal for us as Sudanese. These ladies were here to make life better for the people of Darfur.”
The Irish delegation, which includes Ireland’s Ambassador to Egypt, Gerry Corr; director of Irish Aid Brendan Rogers and Lieut-Col Ollie Barbour of the Defence Forces, arrived in Khartoum at the weekend.
They have held meetings with Sudanese authorities as well as officials from other embassies whose citizens have been abducted in the past.
Some of the delegation arrived in the north Darfur capital of El Fasher yesterday morning. “We’re still very hopeful that the delegation, through their meetings with various Sudanese officials, will find some clue as to which group is responsible for this kidnapping and will lead us to the point where we will be able to negotiate the release,” said Goal chief executive John O’Shea.