Abducted American, Missing Russian Highlight Darfur Woe

UNITED NATIONS (July 28) -- The unknown fates of an abducted American aid worker and a missing Russian pilot have heightened concern over the deteriorating security situation in Darfur, where hundreds of civilians are dying in conflicts that put humanitarian workers and U.N. peacekeepers at risk.

"It is with grave concern that I have to report a spike in criminal acts and attacks against U.N. and humanitarian personnel," said Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.'s top official in Sudan, as he briefed the Security Council on Darfur this week.

UNAMID soldiers guard a high-level meeting with Chinese, European, United Nations and African Union officials in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur on July 5.

Ashraf Shazly, AFP / Getty Images

U.N. soldiers are shown outside a meeting of foreign officials in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, on July 5. The deteriorating security situation in the Sudanese region is putting humanitarian workers and U.N. peacekeepers at risk.

The pilot of a Russian-owned helicopter, transporting three members of a rebel group back to South Darfur after peace talks in Doha, Qatar, was beaten along with his passengers upon landing in the village of Aborjo. The crew and passengers were transferred to a government military camp overnight and have returned to safety, but the pilot's fate is unknown.

"The pilot is still unaccounted for. The United Nations remains deeply concerned about his welfare," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky told journalists Wednesday, noting that peacekeepers were working with Sudan's government to find him.

"They were certainly beaten by somebody. ... We're obviously not happy about that. ... We want to find out," Nesirky said.

Meanwhile, an American aid worker abducted by armed men two months ago communicated to Reuters that her situation has become a "living nightmare" and she was surviving by "drinking camel's milk."

"Now I'm camping out in a wadi [dry riverbed] with about 20 men," she said over a satellite phone after her captors contacted the news agency. "I'm no longer being fed, it's raining here and there are a couple of tarps, but we are sleeping in the rain with no clean water -- I drink rainwater when I can collect it."

Her captors have demanded a ransom from the government for the release of the woman, who works for U.S.-based Christian charity Samaritan's Purse. The charity has asked that her name be withheld.

On Tuesday two German aid workers who had been held in captivity for five weeks were released, but the identity of their captors and the reason for their abduction remains unknown.

Two unidentified German aid workers who had been kidnapped five weeks ago in Sudan's Darfur region, arrive back at the airport in Khartoum, Sudan Tuesday, July 27.

Abd Raouf, AP

Two German aid workers arrive at the airport in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, on Tuesday. They were released five weeks after being kidnapped in Darfur.

Worst hit by the persistent fighting are the people of this conflict-ridden region in the western part of Sudan. The month of May witnessed the death of 440 civilians, the highest number of casualties since U.N. peacekeepers were deployed in 2007. And while official numbers haven't been released since then, conditions have not improved.

"We are alarmed and gravely concerned by the dramatically deteriorating security situation in Darfur," said Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., after a Security Council briefing, "and it needs to be effectively addressed."

Worsening conditions on the ground are not helping the already fragile peace negotiations going on in Doha between the government and some factions of the splintered and fractious rebel movement.

One of the main rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, recently withdrew from the peace process after renewed clashes with the government forces. Another rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army, attacked government forces recently, causing civilian deaths.

Gambari asked the Security Council to push all rebel groups to "urgently engage in the Doha peace talks ... without any preconditions, in order to conclude and finalize a peace agreement before the end of the current year."

The ethnic tribes of Darfur, which have been fighting with the predominantly Arab government since 2003, assert that they have been politically and economically marginalized for decades.

At the height of the conflict, a notorious government-backed militia, the Janjaweed, killed thousands of civilians while burning down hundreds of villages. Since then, the International Criminal Court has issued two arrest warrants for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Several African leaders strongly oppose the indictment, On Tuesday, the African Union asked the ICC to suspend the arrest warrant for 12 months until the regional body could carry out its own investigation.

"We have decided to establish our own mechanism," Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika, head of the pan-African organization, told reporters today at the three-day African Union Summit in Kampala, Uganda.

"Let us look at the position of the ICC," he added, according to Bloomberg. "Do they have a right to try Sudan, which is not a member of the ICC? I think it is something we have to look at."

The U.N. puts the death toll from the conflict at 300,000, but the Sudanese government claims that the number is close to 10,000. While widespread atrocities are no longer the problem, more than 2 million people remain displaced, and the continued fighting has badly impacted the humanitarian situation on the ground.

"Regrettably, progress achieved during the past year towards a stabilized humanitarian situation has been slowed down in the past weeks," said Gambari, noting that aid workers could not access people in dangerous areas.