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UNICEF welcomes release of hijacked drivers in Darfur

UNICEF welcomes release of hijacked drivers in Darfur

Truck convoy in Sudan
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) expressed relief today at the release of four drivers from the State Water Corporation in Sudan’s violence-wracked North Darfur state, who were abducted more than a week ago.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) expressed relief today at the release of four drivers from the State Water Corporation in Sudan’s violence-wracked North Darfur state, who were abducted more than a week ago.

The four have now been reunited with their families, but valuable drilling equipment – which was part of a project to provide clean water for tens of thousands of people in North Darfur – has not been recovered, a United Nations spokesperson said.

Unidentified gunmen hijacked an engineering team of the water corporation, UNICEF's main counterpart in providing water and sanitation services across northern Sudan, last Thursday night in Um Tajok.

Banditry has become increasingly frequent in Darfur, where in the past five years more than 200,000 people have been killed and at least 2.2 million others displaced from their homes because of fighting between rebels, Government forces and allied militiamen.

A hybrid UN-African Union peacekeeping force known as UNAMID is being deployed to the region to try to quell the violence and the humanitarian suffering, but the mission is still lacking key capacities and remains far short of the 26,000 uniformed personnel expected when it reaches full capacity.