A female American aid worker abducted in Darfur more than 100 days ago was freed yesterday, officials said, while three Russians were reported kidnapped in the war-torn region of west Sudan.
The aid worker for US aid group Samaritan’s Purse, which named her as Flavia Wagner, 35, was kidnapped in mid-May in the village of Abu Ajura, in South Darfur state, along with two Sudanese colleagues who were freed after a week.
“She was freed a short while ago and is now at the home of the governor of South Darfur (Abdel Hamid Kasha) in Nyala,” Sudan foreign ministry spokesman Moawiya Osman said.
Colleagues had seen her “and report that she is well. She said she is looking forward to being reunited with her family in the United States,” Samaritan’s Purse said in a statement.
“We thank God that Flavia is safe and free,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse. “We appreciate the help of the government of Sudan and the United States government.”
Ms Wagner’s release – after a 105-day ordeal in which she became the first Western woman to have been held alone in Darfur – was the fruit of “negotiations with the abductors”, Mr Osman said.
“No ransom has been paid,” he added. Her abductors had asked for a large sum of money in exchange for her release.
According to Mr Osman, authorities had struck “a deal with the Americans that no security operation should be undertaken to free the woman in order to protect her life”.
The kidnappers initially wanted a ransom but later said they had made “demands” of the Khartoum government. News of the woman’s release came just hours after Sudan’s army spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad reported that two Russian helicopter crew members had been abducted by gunmen in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, on Sunday.
He later gave a revised figure of three Russians kidnapped, while Russia’s Interfax news agency identified them as the captain of an Mi-8 helicopter and two crew members.
Strife-torn Darfur has seen a wave of kidnappings since March 2009, when the International Criminal Court indicted Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crimes there, with 23 foreigners seized, including the Russians.
With the release of the American aid worker, only the three newly-seized Russians remain in captivity.
In July, Ms Wagner, reached by satellite telephone, said that her situation had turned into a “nightmare”.
“In the past it was okay, but now it is not. They are threatening me, my life, my health,” said the woman.
“I am not safe now. I don’t have clean water, the situation changed very quickly into a nightmare. There are 20 men around me now,” Ms Wagner said at the time.
According to foreign ministry spokesman Saad, the abducted Russians work for private aviation company Badr.
The helicopter was carrying food and other civilian supplies for the United Nations mission to Darfur.
Darfur has been gripped by civil war since 2003 that has left 300,000 people dead and 2.7 million displaced.