Efforts continue to secure release of Irish aid worker
A high-level team of diplomats and negotiators will today continue efforts to locate an Irish aid worker and her colleague who have been kidnapped in war-torn Sudan.
Sharon Commins, 32, from Clontarf in north Dublin, and Ugandan Hilda Kuwuki, 42, were captured by a gang of armed men at a compound in the town of Kutum, northern Darfur, on Friday.
A government delegation including trained hostage negotiators, led by the Ambassador to Egypt Gerard Corr, arrived in the Sudanese capital Khartoum yesterday morning.
Some are holding talks with embassies and authorities in the city while others have travelled onto Darfur.
The Irish Ambassador to Uganda Kevin Kelly is also in talks with the government there.
A security guard, who worked along with Ms Commins and Ms Kuwuki for charity Goal and was thrown from the captors’ car as they fled with the two women, was being interviewed.
Goal chief executive John O’Shea said he told the investigation team that six men armed with AK-47 assault rifles also took mobile phones and a computer belonging to the aid agency.
“That suggests to us – but I can only say suggests – that they might be interested in having our contact details,” he said.
“It gives us a little hope that they will make contact.
“Because obviously if we are not able to find them, we would like them to find us.”
Goal, which has 1,600 people working on humanitarian projects in Sudan, has pulled its remaining workers from the Darfur region until Ms Commins and Ms Kuwuki are found.
They were taken from their centre in Kutum on Friday evening at approximately 8.30pm local time by the armed men who forced them into a vehicle along with their Sudanese security guard.
The guard was later thrown from the vehicle as local police gave chase.
Ms Kuwuki is an expert in nutrition and Ms Commins, who has been in Sudan a year-and-a-half as project manager and report writer, is a former press officer for the humanitarian relief group in Dublin.
She obtained a Masters in international relations from Dublin City University (DCU).
Officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs are also in touch with their UN and British counterparts.
Goal has been working in Sudan for the past 24 years and runs clinics, schools and feeding centres open to all.
The area where the group operates has been peaceful. A total of 13 other aid agencies were evicted from Darfur several months ago but Goal had remained unaffected.
It is the third kidnapping of foreign humanitarian workers since March.
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