VARIOUS: AID WORKERS ABDUCTED DURING ATTACK IN SUDAN AND LATER RELEASED ARRIVE IN KENYA
Record ID:
355454
VARIOUS: AID WORKERS ABDUCTED DURING ATTACK IN SUDAN AND LATER RELEASED ARRIVE IN KENYA
- Title: VARIOUS: AID WORKERS ABDUCTED DURING ATTACK IN SUDAN AND LATER RELEASED ARRIVE IN KENYA
- Date: 4th August 2002
- Summary: (U6) NAIROBI, KENYA (AUGUST 3, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV PLANE TAXIING; SLV AMBULANCE 0.17 2. MV DIPLOMATS WAITING 0.22 3. SLV RELEASED WORKERS EMERGE FROM PLANE; RELEASED WORKERS HUG (SOUNDBITE) (German) EKKEHARD FORBERG, RELEASED AID WORKER, SAYING "Until the end it was not clear if we would be released today, but everything went w
- Embargoed: 19th August 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: FRANKFURT, GERMANY AND NAIROBI, KENYA
- City:
- Country: Kenya Germany
- Reuters ID: LVAD62NXD04IPBJSXADL64DNI88G
- Story Text: The aid workers abducted in an attack at a health
centre in south Sudan earlier this week and later released by
a Sudanese militia group, have arrived in Kenya.
World Vision said the two men, who survived on only
milk for the last five days, appeared in good health as they
arrived in Nairobi on Saturday (August 3, 2002).
Another German aid worker abducted in the same ambush on
Monday (July 29) was released on Thursday (August 1).
"Words cannot express the joy and relief of all World
Vision staff...following the safe return of two employees who
were held against their will for more than five days by a
rebel group in southern Sudan," the president of World Vision
International, Dean Hirsch, said in a statement.
The aid agency, which has operated in Sudan since the
1970s, named the German worker as Ekkehard Forberg, a 31-year
old peace-building and conflict-resolution officer based in
the World Vision office in Frankfurt.
The Kenyan, 46-year old Andrew Omwenga, is World Vision's
administrative officer at Waat in Upper Nile Province, where
the workers were seized after militiamen raided a community
health centre on Monday.
A Kenyan World Vision worker, 46-year-old Charles Kibbe,
was killed in the attack.
Hirsch said Kibbe's death highlighted the need to provide
more protection for aid workers. "This tragic incident
underscores the importance of ensuring the safety and security
of humanitarian workers," he said.
The agency said the United Nations and the German Foreign
Ministry were involved in securing the release of the two
workers, but said it would give out more information next week
after the pair were debriefed.
The released workers are to undergo medical tests in
Nairobi before they are reunited with their families, the
statement said.
From Frankfurt, World Vision spokesman Karl Baugert said
"the two are secure in Kenya, and the German worker has spoken
to his mother on the phone in the meantime. He is in a
somewhat fragile medical condition and is being treated by
medical authorities. The Kenyan who was released is also doing
relatively well."
"The colleague who was freed on Thursday walked for
three days. Each night for 4-5 hours over a distance of 60
kilometres. This explains the wounds on his feet. During the
day they hid. There was practically nothing to eat. They lived
on water and goats milk as far as we know. And we know from Mr
Forberg that he hardly had anything to eat," he added.
For the past six months, the area around Waat has been
held by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) which
has been fighting the government in Khartoum since 1983.
Around two million people have been killed since the
Sudanese conflict began.
Analysts said the attack on Waat was carried out by Nuer
militia loosely aligned with the government of Sudan but said
it was possible the militiamen were acting independently.
World Vision works on child malnutrition, immunisation and
primary health care in the Waat region.
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