Aid workers missing in Sudan

Eight Sudanese aid workers have gone missing in rebel-controlled territory in Sudan.

Sudanese officials said the aid workers – three from the UN World Food Programme and five from the Sudanese Red Crescent – had been kidnapped by rebels waging an 18 month insurgency against the government.

In Rome, WFP spokeswoman Caroline Hurford declined to speculate on whether the workers had been kidnapped.

In June, 16 relief workers from international aid organisations were detained for several days in North Darfur, one of the region’s three states, by the rebel Sudan Liberation Army.

The rebels said they had stopped the workers to ascertain their identities because they were in a military zone. The United Nations said then that the detention was “totally unacceptable” and contradicted rebel promises to facilitate relief work.

The WFP and Red Crescent lost contact with the eight Sudanese aid workers on Saturday afternoon. They had driven to Tongragra village, 53 miles south of al-Fasher to register internally displaced people and assess conditions in the area.

The aid workers had a satellite phone and walkie talkies, but efforts to contact them have proved fruitless.

WFP officials outlined their search efforts briefly but did not otherwise comment, fearing statement to the press might hamper efforts to find the missing workers.