TWO WOMEN who were kidnapped last week while working with the Irish aid agency Goal in Sudan are in good health and could be released "shortly", according to a report from the Reuters news agency late last night.
Sharon Commins (32), from Clontarf in Dublin, was kidnapped by armed men at a compound run by Goal in the north Darfur town of Kutum on Friday night. She was taken from the compound along with Ugandan colleague Hilda Kuwuki (42) and a Sudanese security guard who was later released.
It was the third kidnapping of foreign aid workers in the remote western region in four months.
Sudan's state news agency Suna last night quoted a "source" from the country's ministry of humanitarian affairs saying the women had already been contacted by representatives from their home countries.
"The source said that the two abductees are in a good health condition,adding that they were contacted by their respective countries, Ireland and Uganda," Suna reported. "He expected the two abductees to be set free shortly."
Goal chief executive John O'Shea last night said the agency was attempting to establish if the comments were correct and gather more details about the supposed location of the two women.
"We haven't heard anything definite yet," he said. "People are chasing leads but I have no concrete information so far."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs also said she could not confirm the report.
Ms Commins has been working with Goal for four years and in the Darfur region for the last 18 months.
Following the kidnapping, Mr O'Shea said he believed the incident was "an issue of people looking for ransom money".
"It can't be a political matter as we have never taken any sides in the conflict here over the seven or eight years we have been working in Darfur. I'd imagine it is an issue of criminality."
The Sudanese ambassador to the UK and Ireland, Omer Mohamed Ahmed Siddig, yesterday warned against paying a ransom in abduction cases and said it had not paid a ransom to secure the safe release of aid workers in the past.
Mr Siddig yesterday told the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs that no contact had yet been made by the kidnappers but this was not of undue concern as it had taken four or five days for contact to be made in previous cases.
Two groups of foreign aid workers who were kidnapped in Darfur in March and April were later released unharmed, he said. The payment of a ransom would be "a very dangerous thing", he told deputies and senators.
"I really don't know the motive," Mr Siddig said. "I wish I knew but I said it could be for ransom." When women were kidnapped in Sudan it was usually for ransom and no such woman had ever been killed or harmed by her abductors in Sudan, he said.
Information from local chiefs and local tribes was "very important" in such cases and this information had helped to narrow down the search area. "The search is focused on an area and that area is getting smaller and smaller," he said.
The ambassador said a specific village had not yet been pinpointed. Darfur was a vast area, similar to the size of France, and the government worked closely with local chiefs and tribes, Mr Siddig said.
He said the kidnapping was a "heinous crime" and matter of "high concern" to the Sudanese government.
The government of Sudan was really disturbed by the news that the two ladies from Goal had been kidnapped," he said.
Mr Siddig said the government had a high appreciation of the role played by Irish non-governmental organisations in Sudan and it deplored the kidnapping in the strongest manner.
He said Sudan and Ireland had a good relationship, Irish aid was changing lives in his country and that he hoped the incident would not sour the relationship.