Hopes high for release of aid workers

A SENIOR government minister in Sudan yesterday said he hoped kidnapped aid worker Sharon Commins and her Ugandan colleague will be released “in a few days’ time”.

State Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Abdel Baqi al-Jailani told the Irish Examiner that he was sorry Ms Commins and Hilda Kawuki had been kidnapped and stated: “Please convey our regret and sorrow for what has happened.”

His words came amid rising hopes that 32-year-old Ms Commins and 42-year-old Ms Kawuki may be released by the gang who kidnapped them at gunpoint from their GOAL compound in Darfur a week ago today.

Although the Department of Foreign Affairs has remained tightlipped about aspects of the negotiations, it is understood Ms Commins, from Clontarf in Dublin, made contact by phone with the Irish delegation in Sudan yesterday and assured them that she and Ms Kawuki were in good health.

It is also understood that she made contact with officials in Dublin and that Ms Kawuki also spoke by phone with the Ugandan Ambassador to Sudan.

It had been reported earlier yesterday that the gang holding the two women, who were taken captive in Kutum in Darfur last Friday, had issued a ransom demand for their release.

Earlier this week the Sudanese Ambassador to Britain and Ireland, Omer Siddig, said the net was tightening on the gang and authorities in Sudan were speaking with local tribal chiefs in an effort to secure the release of Ms Commins and Ms Kawuki.

Ambassador Siddig is also due to meet Sharon Commins’s family today.

Minister al-Jailani spoke cautiously about the current position, describing it as “an ad hoc situation”.

“We are giving priority to releasing these two ladies,” he said. “They are here to help us. They do not deserve it [what has happened].”

When asked if he was optimistic that the women would be released unharmed, he said: “absolutely”, adding that he hoped it would happen “in a few days’ time”.

He also said the group were “bandits”, adding: “sometimes they hide behind slogans”.

The kidnapping is the third time in recent months that aid workers have been abducted.

Recent kidnappings were carried out by a group calling itself the Eagles of Bashir.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said the situation was “delicate” and declined to comment on media reports about a ransom demand or contacts made with the two women.

GOAL, for which Ms Commins was working in the stricken Darfur region of Sudan, also declined to comment on the reports emanating from Sudan yesterday.