By Zhou Jing

Four Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff, kidnapped on March 12 (Hong Kong time) from Serif Umra, North Darfur, Sudan, were released safely in the early morning of March 15.

Earlier on March 11 local time, the five MSF staff members, including three international and two Sudanese, were kidnapped from Serif Umra. Later that same night one of the Sudanese staff members was released.

Canadian nurse Laura Archer, Italian doctor Mauro D'ascanio, French Coordinator Raphaël Meunier and Sudanese watchman Sharif Mohamadin were all released after three days in captivity. They are with MSF staff and appear to be fine, according to the MSF website.

Christopher Stokes, MSF Belgium general director, confirmed the kidnapped humanitarian workers are safe and in good health, saying that their families have been informed and are overjoyed, and that MSF are delighted the incident is resolved.

Stokes also expressed his outrage at the abduction of his colleagues, saying "kidnapping of humanitarian workers jeopardizes humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable. Our independent medical work must be respected if we are to continue working in conflict areas to save the lives of those who suffer most."

The MSF website said that as a result of the abduction, almost all MSF international staff were evacuated from its Darfur projects, while a number of Sudanese staff were also relocated to safety. A skeleton MSF team remained to secure the release of the kidnapped staff.

Following the release of the kidnapped MSF staff, Hassabu Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, Sudanese commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, made an announcement at a press conference yesterday that the Sudanese government had taken additional security measures to protect foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and their offices in the restive western Sudanese region of Darfur.

A Xinhua report on Monday said the kidnappers had claimed that they carried out the abduction to protest against an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir. The ICC warrant was issued on March 4 for alleged war crimes in Darfur.

The arrest warrant for al-Bashir would severely disturb political processes in the Darfur region as well as the peace and stability of the country, said Liu Guijin, the special representative of the Chinese government for Darfur, in Beijing on March 5.

On March 5, the Sudanese government announced a sudden decision to expel 13 foreign NGOs operating in Darfur, accusing them of passing "false and fabricated information" to the ICC, a charge denied by relief agencies.

Yesterday, while addressing a meeting of Sudanese charities and voluntary organizations for collecting donations, al-Bashir reiterated the readiness of his government to fill the gap of humanitarian work in the war-torn region of Darfur after 13 foreign NGOs were expelled.

He warned the remaining foreign relief organizations in Sudan of the consequences of overstepping their mandate stipulated by the country's law of voluntary work, praised the role of domestic social organizations in improving the humanitarian situation in Darfur, and announced at the meeting that donations could fill 100 percent of the gap left by the departure of the foreign NGOs.

(China.org.cn, March 16, 2009)