29 Kidnapped Chinese workers freed in Sudan oil state
By Ulf Laessing and Sui-Lee Wee
KHARTOUM/BEIJING | Tue Feb 7, 2012 11:57am EST
(Reuters) – Sudanese rebels released 29 Chinese workers Tuesday, ten days after kidnapping them in the main oil-producing state of South Kordofan where the army has been fighting insurgents, Sudan’s foreign ministry said.
The incident had been an embarrassment for the Sudanese government, which is trying to boost investment from China, its main political and trade ally, as it seeks to overcome a severe economic crisis.
The rebel SPLM-North group said it had taken the construction workers for their own security after a battle with the Sudanese army in South Kordofan, which borders newly independent South Sudan.
But the workers had apparently become caught up in a dispute between Khartoum and rebels who are trying to attract attention to the plight of 417,000 civilians who have fled fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile, another Sudanese border state.
Khartoum has restricted access for aid workers and the United Nations in both states, triggering warnings by the United States that a famine could break out.
The 29 Chinese workers were flown out from Kauda in South Kordofan by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the campaign group and Sudan’s foreign ministry said.
“The Sudanese foreign ministry affirms to the government and people of China that Sudan’s government seeks to protect Chinese investments and workers involved in it,” the ministry added in a statement.
The workers later arrived in Kenyan capital Nairobi “safe and sound,” China’s official news agency, Xinhua, said, citing a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.
SPLM-North rebel spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi declined to comment.
SPLM-North leaders met Chinese officials in Ethiopia last week.
Both South Kordofan and Blue Nile are home to large communities who sided with the south during decades of civil war with Khartoum. Many say they have been marginalized by the Khartoum government since South Sudan declared independence in July under a 2005 peace deal.
The SPLM is now the ruling party in the independent south and dismisses Khartoum’s accusations that it supports SPLM-North rebels across the border.
China is an ally of both north and south and the main buyer of South Sudanese oil as well the biggest investor in Sudan.
Western diplomats say China has the best chance of defusing tensions between Khartoum and Juba, which are locked in a row over sharing oil wealth, dividing up debt and ending violence on both sides of their shared boundary.
CHINESE PRESSURE
The kidnap was the third abduction of Chinese people in Sudan since 2004 and highlighted the risks to China’s expansion in Africa in search of minerals and energy.
Beijing had faced immense pressure to secure the safe return of the abducted workers. State-owned newspapers called for more protection for China’s workers overseas as the world’s second-largest economy expands its investments around the globe.
The workers belonged to state-owned Sinohydro Corporation, a hydropower engineering and construction company.
Khartoum counts on China to boost investment as it seeks to overcome the loss of three-quarters of its oil production, that South Sudan took with it when it seceded.
Most Western firms shun Sudan due to a U.S. trade embargo imposed first in 1997 when Khartoum was hosting prominent militants such as Osama bin Laden.
SPLM-North is one of a number of rebel movements in underdeveloped border areas who say they are fighting to overthrow Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and end what they see as the dominance of the Khartoum political elite.
(Writing by Ulf Laessing and Sui-Lee Wee, Editing by Ron Popeski)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/07/us-china-sudan-workers-idUSTRE8160UU20120207
Kidnapped Chinese workers released in Sudan
- NEW: Chinese hostages are freed in Sudan; they’re now on the way to Kenya
- NEW: The body of one worker killed in the rebel raid on their camp is returned to Chinese officials
- The 29 Chinese workers were abducted from a construction site January 28
(CNN) — More than two dozen Chinese construction workers abducted in Sudan have been released, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday.
The 29 workers flew out of Sudan aboard a Red Cross plane bound for Nairobi, Kenya, Xinhua reported, citing an unnamed source with the International Committee of the Red Cross. They were to be turned over to Chinese officials there, Xinhua said.
Rebels abducted the workers January 28 from a camp run by China’s Power Construction Corp. in volatile South Kordofan. Eighteen other workers in the camp escaped the raid, which the Sudanese military blamed on the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North — a rebel force in the border region with neighboring South Sudan.
One worker died in the raid, Xinhua said. Sudanese authorities handed over the worker’s body Tuesday, according to Xinhua.
The workers were released after what Xinhua described as “a stream of intensive rescue efforts carried out by the Chinese government in collaboration with the Sudanese government and other parties.”
The Al-Adhdath daily newspaper in Khartoum earlier said theInternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had mediated for the release.
South Sudan became the world’s newest nation last year after decades of conflict with the north.
Nevertheless, violence in South Kordofan and the nearby Blue Nile states has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. While the region is in Sudanese territory, it straddles Sudan and South Sudan’s ethnic and political lines.
China is Sudan’s largest trading partner, while Sudan is China’s third-largest trading partner in Africa. According to the Chinese foreign ministry, trade between the two countries reached $8.63 billion in 2010, an increase of 35.1% compared with the previous year.
The close bilateral cooperation is mainly driven by oil exports from Sudan, which is among the top oil suppliers for China.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/07/world/africa/sudan-hostages/index.html
Chinese workers freed in Sudan, flown to Kenya
The body of the man killed during the attack has been handed over to Chinese authorities in SudanA group of Chinese workers kidnapped by rebels in Sudan has been freed and flown to Kenya, officials from both countries say.
The construction workers were released to the International Committee of the Red Cross on Tuesday, 11 days after they were abducted.
They had been held in Sudan’s restive border state of South Kordofan.
A Red Cross plane flew them to Nairobi, where they are to be taken to the Chinese embassy, Sudan says.
Sudan’s foreign ministry spokesman al-Obeid Morawah told the BBC that as far as he was aware 29 Chinese nationals were on the flight, and all were in good health.
The Red Cross plane took off from a small airstrip in the South Kordofan town of Kauda, he said.
The road construction workers were taken captive when rebels from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) stormed their camp on 28 January.
Another 18 people fled the scene, of whom 17 were later found safely.
One man was killed during the SPLM-N attack – his body was earlier handed over to the Chinese embassy in Khartoum.
The SPLM-N – which used to fight alongside the rulers of now independent South Sudan – has been battling government forces in South Kordofan for more than six months.
Correspondents say Beijing is a key supporter of the Khartoum government but the abduction – the third involving Chinese nationals since 2004 – has strained relations.
China buys much of the oil produced in both Sudan and South Sudan and is a major supplier of weapons to Khartoum.
China is trying to mediate a bitter dispute between South Sudan and Sudan over oil, which is produced primarily in South Sudan but runs through pipelines in the north for export.
South Sudan’s new leaders deny Khartoum’s accusations that they are backing the SPLM-N.
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