KHARTOUM, Sudan — Three foreign aid workers abducted in Sudan’s lawless Darfur region were released unharmed Saturday, three days after their capture led international aid groups to question how they can continue to work in the area.
Sudanese television showed the Doctors Without Borders workers — a Canadian nurse, an Italian doctor and a French project coordinator — stepping off a military helicopter at El Fasher airport in North Darfur with the local governor.
“I would like to say to everybody we are safe, we are here, we are in good health,” said Raphael Meunier, the French coordinator.
The governor, Osman Kebir, said the kidnapping Wednesday was carried out by a group seeking to retaliate for the International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued against President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes in Darfur.
Kebir said no ransom was paid to the group, which he said called itself the Eagles of al-Bashir.
Sudan’s government threw 13 international aid agencies out of the country after the March 4 warrant, accusing them of being the court’s spies. The government says it had nothing to do with the abduction and condemned it.
The Netherlands-based court accuses al-Bashir of orchestrating atrocities against civilians in Darfur, where his Arab-led government has been battling ethnic African rebels since 2003. Up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million have been driven from their homes.
Sudan denies the charges and says the figures are exaggerated.
The government warned that issuing the warrant could lead to spontaneous revenge attacks by enraged Sudanese, though it pledged to defend aid workers and diplomats in the country.
Security considerations would mean scaling back in the remote areas of Darfur where nearly half of the 4.7 million people receiving aid reside. The aid-group expulsion has already left a number of refugee camps without a single aid group to provide services.
