Sudan said today that rebels had kidnapped eight United Nations and Red Crescent workers in the country’s western Darfur area, according to reports from the Reuters news agency.
Darfur is where aid agencies are struggling to feed and house one million villagers displaced by fighting.
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement the rebels had seized workers from the World Food Programme
(WFP) and the Sudanese Red Crescent on Sunday in the area of Shangal Tubaya (Northern Darfur), where aid agences are stuggling to feed and house one million villagers displaced by fighting.
“The outlaws do not want the security situation for the people of Darfur to stabilise and that is within the context of their behaviour, which has consistently targeted humanitarian work,” the statement said.
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A WFP spokesman, Marcus Prior, said three Sudanese working for WFP and five Sudanese Red Crescent workers were missing, but he did not say what had happened to them. He said WFP had set up a crisis centre in Northern Darfur and four U.N. security officers were working on finding the missing workers.
The reported kidnaps come as a UN-imposed deadline for quelling violence in Sudan’s Darfur provinces expires today and hopes for a “reasonable decision” from the UN Security Council, its Foreign Minister said.
Mustafa Osman Ismail’s remarks came as a United States State Department official made a final firsthand assessment of conditions for thousands of displaced people.
The visit by Constance Berry Newman, an assistant secretary of state for African affairs, follows tours by UN teams who will report on Tuesday to the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on whether the Sudanese government is doing all it can to rein in Arab militiamen.
Known as Janjaweed, the militiamen are blamed for killing and raping black African villagers and for driving more than one million people from their homes.
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The Security Council will meet on Thursday and consider whether to follow through with its threat of unspecified action against Khartoum.
The United States has advocated sanctions against the government.
“Of course we are concerned.,” Mr Ismail said today. “We wish ... the relationship with the Security Council will not be the way of confrontation. We hope it will be in the form of cooperation.”
“We hope the Security Council will come out with a reasonable decision that will help us to continue working together,” he said.
He did not directly threaten to end cooperation with the United Nations if Khartoum disagrees with the Security Council’s decision.
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Mr Ismail refused to see Ms Newman in Khartoum. The official Sudanese news agency quoted him as saying it was in protest of the US State Department failing to help it keep its embassy open in Washington.
More than 30,000 people are thought to have been killed in the violence since two rebel factions took up arms against the government in February 2003 - escalating years of low-level conflict between African farmers and Arab herders, competing for water and land.
The rebels, drawn from African tribes, rose up against the Arab-dominated government, claiming discrimination and political marginalisation.
Human rights groups, the US Congress and UN officials accuse the government of trying to crush the rebellion by backing the Janjaweed - allegations Khartoum has repeatedly denied.
A contingent of 150 Nigerian soldiers is scheduled to arrive in Sudan on Monday to boost the African Union presence.
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