Italian aid worker kidnapped in South Darfur

[News_Editor]

Italian aid worker kidnapped in South Darfur

2011-08-16 08:32:11 GMT+7 (ICT)

NYALA (BNO NEWS) -- An Italian aid worker was kidnapped by a group of armed men in the Sudanese region of South Sudan on Sunday, officials confirmed on Monday. His current status is unknown.

The incident happened at around 5 p.m. local time when Francesco Azzara, 34, was on his way to an airport in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. Azzara was working for the humanitarian NGO ' Emergency' which provides medical treatment to civilian victims of war.

"The victim was in a car with two Sudanese colleagues driving to the airport when four unidentified armed men, dressed in civilian clothes, stopped them," a spokesperson for the African Union - United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) said. "The perpetrators forced all occupants out of the vehicle and took the international staff member, an Italian, with them."

The two colleagues traveling with Azzara were not harmed during the incident, but Azzara's status is unknown. "An EMERGENCY team is following developments and is in constant contact with the family and the Italian and Sudanese authorities," Emergency said in a statement. "EMERGENCY calls for the immediate release of Francesco Azzara and expects full cooperation of all who can help reach a positive outcome to this story."

From mid-May until mid-June, Sudanese authorities imposed restrictions on the movement of humanitarian workers beyond a 15-kilometer (9.3-mile) radius of Nyala. The move was criticized by aid workers, but South Darfur authorities said the restrictions were necessary because of ongoing military operations and 'security threats.'

More than two million people, most of them civilians who died due to starvation and drought, were killed during the Second Sudanese Civil War between 1983 and 2005. The war officially ended with the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), but the conflict has nonetheless continued.

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