ATTEMPTS TO secure the release of two women who were kidnapped 13 days ago while working for the Irish aid agency Goal in the Darfur region of Sudan are being intensified, it was indicated last night.
Sharon Commins (32) from Clontarf, Dublin, and her Ugandan colleague Hilda Kawuki (42) were seized from a Goal compound in Kutum, in north Darfur, by a gang of armed men at 8.30pm last Friday week.
Goal said in a brief statement that an Irish delegation remained in regular contact with the kidnappers and that they are “intensifying their efforts” to secure the release of the aid workers.
Sudanese authorities say they have been negotiating with the kidnappers since last week and also liaising with tribal elders.
Government officials and negotiators have been sent to Khartoum and El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, to help free the women, who have spoken to officials by phone on a number of occasions, and have told them they are in good health.
It was reported on Tuesday that the kidnappers had demanded $2 million for their release, but a Sudanese official said ransom demands should not be met.
“The kidnappers are asking for $2 million. But our policy is not to pay. We feel that would encourage others to do the same,” Sudan’s state minister for humanitarian affairs Abdel Baqi al-Jailani said.
The minister said Darfur officials were using local leaders to negotiate with the kidnappers, adding he was still expecting a positive outcome.
“Our main priority remains the safety of the two women,” he told Reuters news agency.
Kidnappings of aid workers have become a regular occurence during the past six-year Darfur conflict, which has pitted pro- government militias and troops against mostly non-Arab rebels, who took up arms in 2003, accusing the government of neglecting the region.
Ms Commins has been working with Goal for the about four years and has spent the last 18 months in the Darfur region.
