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Darfur aid workers are free after kidnapping ordeal in the Sudan

by Amy Judd | March 13, 2009 at 12:00 pm

276 views | 58 Recommendations | 10 comments

The Italian Forestry Ministry has just released a statement saying that the Doctors Without Borders members who were taken in Darfur almost two days ago are now free.

It is now confirmed that they were released an hour ago:

Four aid workers with French-based medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) who were kidnapped in Darfur have been released, MSF Italy said on Friday.

Doctors Without Borders itself is still claiming that they have made contact with all the doctors and that they are safe, but not that they have been released. They are saying that four doctors have been abducted, and not three.

The four MSF staff that remain abducted are an Italian doctor, a Canadian nurse, a French coordinator and a Sudanese watchman. All four work for the Belgian section of MSF.

There is no information as of yet on the Italian Ministry Website.

More information on this story when it becomes available.

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Blue Crush

at 12:29 on March 13th, 2009

This is great news! Thanks for posting.

Pythiian1

at 12:45 on March 13th, 2009

Great news, and thank you, Amy, for this update.

Pythiian1

at 12:57 on March 13th, 2009

From Ottawa Citizen: "A Canadian nurse kidnapped in Sudan, along with an Italian doctor and a French field worker, has been released, Medecins Sans Frontieres said in a statement Friday." - I've not checked MSF website.

Amy Judd

at 13:20 on March 13th, 2009

MSF still has no update on their site about the release.

harringtola

at 13:07 on March 13th, 2009

Great follow up. I am glad I was alerted to take a look by Blue....

Amy Judd

at 16:06 on March 13th, 2009

Thanks for the updates here

djermano

at 17:06 on March 13th, 2009

There is such a thing as good news in the world.

Rev. Jermano

Barry Artiste

at 17:10 on March 13th, 2009

Thats great news, now will the medical teams come back?

Blue Crush

at 07:16 on March 14th, 2009

Today's TheStar.com says earlier reports premature: Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Sadiq said: “They have not been released. But we are expecting their release anytime during the course of the day.”