A UK aid worker freed after a kidnap ordeal of nearly three months in Sudan's Darfur region arrived in the capital Khartoum on Wednesday following his release. Patrick Noonan stood silently on the steps of a VIP airport terminal, flanked by officials, after a flight from conflict-plagued Darfur.
"He's been through an ordeal. We were told how strong a man he was and I think that's true," Tony Brennan, charge d'affaires of the British embassy, told reporters in a short airport press briefing. He added that Noonan had come through with "his head held high." Asked how he had been treated in captivity, Noonan looked at a reporter and said nothing before he was driven away.
He wore a white collarless shirt, and his face was marked with red blotches. Noonan earlier told a news conference in Darfur that his captors did not harm him, the African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) in Darfur said late Wednesday. It said the captors gave him food but he suffered from a shortage of water. "He stated that he was allowed to contact his family", UNAMID said.
"After 86 days in captivity in the South Darfur region of Sudan, British aid worker Patrick Noonan, who was working for the World Food Programme, has been released," WFP said. Noonan had been in Sudan for about two years and was working as a logistician in Nyala town when he was abducted by armed men on March 6, it said. "We are all very happy in WFP that Patrick is with us again and we thank the governments, and particularly the government of South Darfur, for what they have done," Corinne Fleischer, WFP deputy regional director, said at the airport.
A Sudanese driver kidnapped with Noonan was released later that same day, WFP said. "It is with great pleasure that we can confirm the release of the British hostage Patrick Noonan, who was kidnapped in Sudan three months ago," said Britain's Africa Minister Henry Bellingham in London. Noonan is a 48-year-old father of two from Northern Ireland. "He needs a lot of time to rest and to reunite with his family," UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari said with Noonan beside him.
In the statement issued by WFP, Gambari warned that the abduction of humanitarian workers is a violation of international humanitarian law and the perpetrators must be found and prosecuted. "The situation in Darfur remains volatile and insecurity is an issue that impedes the work of the humanitarian community serving the region," the WFP statement said. It said that since 2009, 40 humanitarian workers had been abducted. All have now been freed. A WFP spokeswoman in Khartoum said they did not know the identity of Noonan's kidnappers.