Sudanese Unamid employee abducted in Central Darfur

Two gunmen kidnapped a staff member of the Unamid peacekeeping mission in Nierteti, Central Darfur, today.

“Esam Adam Abdeljabar, who works for the civil department of Unamid, was on his way home when he was intercepted near the market of Nierteti,” a relative of the victim informed Radio Dabanga.

“The two gunmen forced him at gunpoint to mount their motorcycle and took him to an unknown destination,”he said.

Deterioration of living conditions

The number of abductions for ransom has increased the past year in Sudan. Dr Nur El Sadeg, Darfur Secretary for Darfur of the Sudanese Communist Party, told Radio Dabanga last year that the phenomenon can be explained by “the increased insecurity in Sudan in general, and in Darfur in particular, the weakened rule of law, the participation of government forces and their friends in the abductions, but in particular by the rapid deterioration of living conditions”.

Last year, the Sudanese Interior Minister, Lt. Col. Esmat Abdelrahman, acknowledged a significant increase in human trafficking in the country.

On the occasion of an international conference to combat human trafficking in Khartoum in October, he stated that the phenomenon is “becoming worrisome”, in particular in the eastern Sudanese states of Kassala, El Gedaref, Red Sea, and the five Darfur states.