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Darfur: UN helps to secure release of Sudanese aid workers taken hostage at camp

Darfur: UN helps to secure release of Sudanese aid workers taken hostage at camp

Children at Kalma IDP camp in Darfur
United Nations officials have helped to secure the release of 12 Sudanese aid workers who were taken hostage by a youth group at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the war-torn Darfur region.

Representatives of the joint African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) worked with the leaders of the Kalma IDP camp in South Darfur to successfully mediate the release of the aid workers.

The aid workers are scheduled to be released later today, UNAMID said in a press release.

The aid workers – who had been conducting a vaccination campaign in Kalma, which is home to tens of thousands of people – had been taken hostage on Monday, apparently in retaliation for the arrest by security forces of an IDP who worked for a national non-governmental organization (NGO).

Some humanitarian organizations suspended their operations in Kalma after the aid workers were taken hostage, UNAMID reported.

IDP camps have emerged across Darfur’s three states since deadly conflict erupted in 2003 between rebels, Government forces and allied militiamen. UNAMID has been in place since the start of 2008 in a bid to quell the fighting and ease the humanitarian suffering.