ABDUCTED DARFUR AID WORKERS FREED

Two aid workers who were kidnapped in Sudan’s Darfur region more than three months ago have said they are “thrilled” to be released.

Irish citizen Sharon Commins, 32, and her Ugandan colleague Hilda Kawuki, 42, were working for the Irish charity Goal when seized by gunmen in Kutum in July.

The Sudanese government confirmed the pair were freed early Sunday morning.

The women described their ordeal as a “difficult time” and thanked all those who had worked to secure their release.

In a joint statement released through the GOAL charity, the women said they were “naturally thrilled to be released after such a long period in captivity”.

“We know it must have been a traumatic period for our families especially and for our friends,” they said.

“It was of course, a difficult time – but we found strength in each other and in our friendship.”

They added that they could “hardly wait to get home” to spend time with their families.

Sudan’s state Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Abdel Baqi al-Jailani, stressed that “no ransom was paid,” and said local tribe leaders had put pressure on the kidnappers to release the workers.

Reports earlier in the year had suggested the kidnappers made a $2m ransom demand in return for their safe release.

The Sudanese government said the kidnappers were bandits who would not be granted an amnesty for releasing the aid workers, the BBC’s James Copnall in Khartoum said.

The two women have spent the longest time in captivity of any foreigners in Darfur, our correspondent added.

They were taken hostage at gunpoint at an aid compound in Kutum on 3 July.

Speaking in Dublin, Ms Commin’s mother Agatha said she was “absolutely overjoyed” at the news of her daughter’s release.

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SUDAN’S POLICE TEAR-GAS PROTESTERS

Police have fired tear gas at supporters of a Sudanese woman charged with wearing “indecent clothing”, shortly after her trial was postponed.

Lubna Ahmed Hussein says she was arrested for wearing trousers.

She has adopted a defiant attitude, urging authorities to try her although she faces up to 40 lashes in public.

Earlier, she told the BBC she was not afraid, saying: “Flogging is not pain, flogging is an insult to humans, women and religions.”

Ms Hussein has resigned from a UN job that would have given her immunity to take on the case – indicating she wants it to become a test case for women’s rights in Sudan.

“If the court’s decision is that I be flogged, I want this flogging in public,” she told the BBC’s Today programme.

But Ms Hussein’s trial in the capital, Khartoum, was delayed for a month after the judge said he needed to verify if she was immune from prosecution because of her former position at the UN.

After her hearing was adjourned, Ms Hussein said the authorities wanted to delay her trial until the fuss around it went away.

Scores of women protested outside the court, some holding up banners saying “No return to the dark ages”.

Then the riot police drove them away, reports the BBC’s James Copnall in Sudan.

First they marched up the road, banging their batons against their plastic shields, and later they fired tear gas and charged the protesters.

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SUDAN ACCEPTS OIL BORDER TOWN RULING

North and south Sudan say they accept a border ruling by judges in The Hague that gives a big oilfield to the north.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration has redrawn the boundaries of Abyei region, which became a flashpoint during a 22-year-long war between north and south.

The judges decided not to abide by the borders proposed after the 2005 peace deal, which the north had rejected.

Instead it ruled that several areas – including the Heglig oilfied – were not part of Abyei.

Although The Hague court was deciding where Abyei’s borders lay rather than who owned the land, analysts say the ruling was crucial in determining the ownership of the oilfields.

Abyei’s inhabitants will be asked in a referendum in 2011 whether they want to be a part of north or south Sudan – and analysts say they are likely to opt for a union with the south.

By reducing the size of Abyei compared with the 2005 proposals, the court has effectively awarded more land and mineral wealth to the north.

The BBC’s James Copnall in the capital, Khartoum, says the reaction on the ground to the judges’ ruling will be a key test of the peace between north and south.

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DARFUR REBEL GROUP RELEASE 60 SOLDIERS, POLICE

A major Darfur rebel group released 60 captured government soldiers and police on Saturday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said, a move that could help clear a logjam in troubled peace talks. The insurgent Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) handed the captives to Red Cross officers who passed them on to government officials on Saturday afternoon, the humanitarian group said.

“JEM has released 55 Sudan Armed Forces soldiers and five policemen,” Red Cross spokesman Saleh Dabbakeh told Reuters. Talks between JEM and Sudan’s government, which started in Doha in February, have stalled over the timing of confidence building measures, including the release of each other’s prisoners and a ceasefire.

JEM has said it wants Khartoum to release captured rebel fighters before any ceasefire is agreed, while Khartoum says it needs an end to hostilities ahead of other moves. The rebel group told Reuters the release took place close to the north Darfur settlement of Kutum, adding it was ready to free more captives if the government reciprocated by releasing imprisoned JEM fighters.

“We are fulfilling the goodwill agreements we signed in Doha,” senior JEM official Ahmed Tugud said. “We still have many government captives and are willing to release them if similar steps are taken by the other side.” No one was immediately available from Sudan’s government to comment on the release.

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KIDNAPPERS REQUEST FOR $2 MILLION

Kidnappers of two female aid workers in Sudan’s Darfur region have demanded $2 million for their release, but the government is determined not to pay, a minister said on Tuesday. The two workers for Irish aid group GOAL were seized by armed men on July 3 from their base in the north Darfur town of Kutum — the third abduction of foreign humanitarian staff in the region in four months.

“The kidnappers are asking for $2 million. But our policy is not to pay ransom. We feel that would encourage others to do the same,” said state minister for humanitarian affairs Abdel Baqi al-Jailani.

The minister said Darfur officials were using local leaders to negotiate with the kidnappers, adding he was still expecting a positive outcome. “Our main priority remains the safety of the two women”

Irish negotiators and government officials have sent teams to Khartoum and El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, to help free the women, named by GOAL as Hilda Kawuki, 42, from Uganda, and Sharon Commins, 32, from Dublin. Two groups of foreign aid workers kidnapped in Darfur earlier this year were released unharmed after a period of negotiation.

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SUDAN WOMEN FLOGGED FOR TROUSERS

Several Sudanese women have been flogged as a punishment for dressing “indecently”, according to a local journalist who was arrested with them.

Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who says she is facing 40 lashes, said she and 12 other women wearing trousers were arrested in a restaurant in the capital, Khartoum. She told the BBC several of the women had pleaded guilty to the charges and had 10 lashes immediately.Khartoum, unlike South Sudan, is governed by Sharia law.

Several of those punished were from the mainly Christian and animist south, Ms Hussein said. Non-Muslims are not supposed to be subject to Islamic law, even in Khartoum and other parts of the mainly Muslim north. She said that a group of about 20 or 30 police officers entered the popular Khartoum restaurant and arrested all the women wearing trousers.

“I was wearing trousers and a blouse and the 10 girls who were lashed were wearing like me, there was no difference,” she told the BBC’s Arabic service. Ms Hussein said some women pleaded guilty to “get it over with” but others, including herself, chose to speak to their lawyers and are awaiting their fates. Under Sharia law in Khartoum, the normal punishment for “indecent” dressing is 40 lashes.

Ms Hussein is a well-known reporter who writes a weekly column called Men Talk for Sudanese papers. She also works for the United Nations Mission in Sudan.

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AU HALTS COOPERATION WITH ICC OVER BASHIR

The African Union says it will halt co-operation with the International Criminal Court over its decision to charge Sudan’s leader with war crimes.

President Omar al-Bashir was indicted over alleged atrocities in the Darfur region in March.

But delegates to an AU meeting in Libya agreed a resolution saying they would not co-operate in his arrest.

Analysts say the move means the Sudanese leader can travel across the continent without fear of arrest.

The Sudanese government has been fighting rebels in Darfur since 2003.

The ICC has accused President Bashir of two counts of war crimes – intentionally directing attacks on civilians and pillage – as well as five counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and torture, related to the conflict.

He denies the allegations, saying the state has a responsibility to fight rebels.

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SUDANESE MINISTER LOOKS UP TO OBAMA FOR A NEW BEGINNING

U.S. President Barack Obama is turning the page in the West’s troubled relations with Sudan by taking a more constructive approach, a senior Sudanese official said on Thursday. The International Criminal Court has indicted the Sudanese president for war crimes in the Darfur region and European officials say Khartoum is jeopardising a peace deal that ended a separate conflict between Sudan’s north and south.

But Salman al-Wasilla, Sudan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs, told Reuters in an interview the Obama administration was showing a readiness to break with the past. “We are now witnessing a new era (with) the coming of Obama to office, who is now starting to talk about understanding and respect and support and there was a lack of this before,” he said on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Libya.

Obama this year appointed retired Air Force General Scott Gration, a close adviser, as his special envoy to Sudan and the United States last month hosted a conference of officials from Sudan’s north and south to try to keep their peace deal on track. Attacking Western policies on Sudan over the past few years, al-Wasilla said his oil producing country had complied with international demands over Darfur and ended fighting with the rebels in the south but has not been rewarded.

“When we signed the peace agreement (with the southern rebels) we were promised the lifting of sanctions, we were promised debt relief,” he said. “What has been achieved in four years, it should be rewarded … This is what we need: encouragement and not sanctions and allegations and pressure,” he said.

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SUDAN AND DARFUR REBEL END TALK WITHOUT A DEAL

Talks between Sudan’s government and a Darfur rebel group have been adjourned without agreement, both sides said on Friday, blaming each other for the impasse. The move will be seen as a setback to the United States and mediators from the United Nations and African Union who have been stepping up pressure for a resolution to the festering six-year conflict in Sudan’s remote west.

Khartoum has been holding on-and-off discussions with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) — Darfur’s most militarily active insurgent organisation — in Qatar since February. The discussions, also brokered by Qatari mediators, are supposed to pave the way to full peace talks, but have stalled on arguments over a series of confidence-building measures including the exchange of prisoners.

The spokesman for the Sudan government side, Al-Shartawi Ja’afar Abd-al-Hakam, told state radio the talks had reached stalemate following JEM’s refusal to let other organisations and rebel groups take part. JEM dismissed the accusation, saying Khartoum was refusing to honour an earlier deal to free JEM prisoners and improve access for humanitarian groups in Darfur.

“There is no point continuing when the government is adamant it will not go through with the goodwill agreement,” senior JEM official Al-Tahir al-Feki told Reuters by phone from his base in Britain. He said the talks would be adjourned for two months for the negotiating teams to consult with their leaders.

JEM has clashed with Sudan’s army a number of times since the beginning of the talks, most recently over control of settlements in North Darfur, on a strategic road leading to the border with neighbouring Chad.

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SUDAN TRIBESMEN ATTACK UN BARGES CARRYING FOOD

Armed tribesmen attacked UN barges carrying food aid in southern Sudan, with unconfirmed reports of casualties, UN officials have said. Gunmen from the Jikany Nuer ethnic group attacked the 27 boats near the town of Nasir, near Sudan’s eastern border with Ethiopia, on Friday. The barges were travelling to the town of Akobo when they were attacked and 16 have returned to Nasir, the UN said.

Locals said several people had been killed, the AFP news agency reported. “We don’t have information on how many people were killed or injured. But everyone we have talked to has described it as an attack,” Michelle Iseminger of the UN’s World Food Programme said. The boats had been travelling on the Sobat tributary, part of the White Nile river system.

The boats had been carrying sorghum and other food aid to refugees who had fled tribal fighting in the south of Sudan. “There are many wounded in the hospital including soldiers, and many killed, there are dozens dead,” said an unnamed Nasir resident quoted by AFP. The boats had included an escort of soldiers from the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

The river, which is the only way to deliver aid to the poorly-developed south of the country, was closed earlier this year because of tensions in the area. A 22-year war between the Islamic north and the Christian and animist South ended in 2005. But correspondents say tension remains and many fear renewed fighting ahead of a referendum on the south’s potential full independence due in 2011.

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