Two women aid workers from Ireland and Uganda were kidnapped Friday by armed men in Sudan's volatile Darfur region, the scene of Africa's longest running conflict, officials told AFP. "Unidentified armed men came to the quarters of the (Irish) NGO Goal at Kutum in Northern Darfur," the source said. "They took a Sudanese watchman, an Irishwoman and a Ugandan woman. The watchman was later freed."
A UN official also confirmed the kidnapping. Ireland's foreign ministry also confirmed that a national was abducted on Friday. "Two employees were kidnapped from our offices at 2030 local time (1930 GMT). We have no information about the identity of the abductors or their motives," Flora Hills, the head of Goal in Sudan, told AFP. Hills confirmed the nationalities of the two workers.
Sudanese officials were unavailable for comment and no group has yet claimed responsibility for the abduction. Goal has been present in Kutum since, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the Chadian border, since February 2004. It distributes seeds and constructs pit latrines and wells for thousands displaced by the conflict.
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