UN condemns detention of Darfur staff

News Article by AFP posted on May 01, 2007 at 21:24:18: EST (-5 GMT)

KHARTOUM, May 1, 2007 (AFP) - The United Nations on Tuesday condemned the detention of six of its aid workers in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan and warned that such acts endangered its humanitarian operations.

UN humanitarian coordinator Manuel Aranda da Silva said he "strongly condemns the temporary abduction of six staff members" of the UNHCR relief agency and seizure of its vehicles on Monday in Um Shalaya area of West Darfur.

The unidentified gunmen who kidnapped the UN workers, whose nationalities were not given, abandoned them in the desert. They were located after a search operation led by African Union peacekeepers, the UN mission in Sudan said.

The staffers, who were on a routine mission to a refugee camp at the time of their kidnapping, were located unharmed in Saraf Omra, east of Geneina, near the border between West Darfur and North Darfur states.

Da Silva, in a statement, expressed "grave concern over the repeated attacks on humanitarian personnel and assets that put at risk the ongoing humanitarian efforts to assist millions of people in Darfur."

Attacks on aid workers are common in Darfur, a vast region of western Sudan where international organisations say at least 200,000 people have been killed and two million displaced by four years of civil war.

Khartoum disputes the figures as exaggerated.