Photo: Peter Martell/IRIN

Millions of people in the camps rely on international assistance in order to survive

NAIROBI, 1 September 2010 (IRIN) - Three Russian pilots released on 30 August, two days after they were kidnapped in Darfur, were only the latest in a string of foreigners associated with humanitarian operations there to be abducted this year.

The concern from the humanitarian side is that these kidnappings affect the ability of humanitarians to carry out their work in Darfur. The lack of arrests and prosecutions in any of these cases has frequently been cited as contributing to a climate of impunity, meaning that the threat would appear to remain undiminished, Samuel Hendricks, spokesman for OCHA in Sudan, told IRIN.

In all, some 22 aid workers, peacekeepers and pilots have been abducted at gunpoint, for periods ranging from three to 147 days (see table).

The trend led UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to speak out earlier this month, saying: “Continued attacks on UNAMID [UN-AU Mission in Darfur] peacekeepers and abductions and mistreatment of UN staff and humanitarian workers will only aggravate the situation” in Darfur.

Humanitarian operations in the region have also been affected by the Sudanese government’s expulsion of 13 international aid agencies in January 2009 following the arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity issued against President Omar al-Bashir.

Who	How many	Date taken	Where	Date Released	Duration	Nationalities
MSF-B	3	11 March 2009	Saraf Omra (ND)	14 March 2009	3 Days	Canadian, French, Italian
AMI	2	04 April 2009	Ed El Fusan (SD)	29 April 2009	25 days	French, Canadian
GOAL	2	03 July 2009	Kutum(ND)	18 October 2009	106 days	Ugandan, Irish
UNAMID	2	29 August 2009	Zalingei (WD)	13 December 2009	120 days	Nigerian, Zimbabwean
ICRC	1	22 October 2009	Bir Dagig Area (WD)	18 March 2010	147 days	French, British
UNAMID	4	11 April 2010	Returning to Kutum from Ain Siro (ND)	26 April 2010	15 days	South African
Samaritan's Purse	1	18 May 2010	Nyala (SD)	30 August 2010	105 days	American
THW	2	22 June 2010	Abuajura (SD)	27 July 2010	35 days	German
UNAMID	2	14 August 2010	Nyala Town (SD)	17 August 2010	3 days	Jordanian
Sudanese Badr Airlines	3	29 August 2010	Nyala Town (SD)	31 August 2010	2 days	Russian

Chart provided by OCHA

cp/am/mw