Talks on Darfur aid workers release collapse

The unidentified kidnappers of two foreign aid workers held in Darfur said yesterday that negotiations with the Chadian government for their release have collapsed.

"We have had negotiations (this week) with Chadian authorities, but these negotiations have broken down," one of the kidnappers told AFP via satellite telephone from western Darfur, near the border with Chad.

But Ndjamena has denied it was in talks with the kidnappers.

"The Chadian government has no contact with this group," Communications Minister and government spokesman Mahamat Hissene told AFP in Ndjamena earlier this week.

French national Claire Dubois and Canadian Stephanie Jodoin have been held captive since April 4 when they were seized from their office in the South Darfur state capital Nyala, about 100 kilometres from the Chadian border.

The identity, motivation and demands of the kidnappers, who call themselves the Falcons for the Liberation of Africa, remain sketchy.

The hostage-taking was the second such act in Darfur since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant on March 4 for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Four workers with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), three of them foreigners, were kidnapped at gunpoint from their Darfur home on March 11. They were freed four days later.

Sudan expelled 13 aid agencies from Darfur immediately after the ICC issued its warrant.

The Falcons say they targeted the French relief group Aide Medicale Internationale, which employed the two aid workers, in protest at what they called the kidnapping of Darfuri children.