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Ndjamena (AFP) Sept 19, 2010 A Chinese engineer kidnapped in Chad said Saturday he had fled from captivity after unshackling himself from his chains while his abductors slept and fleeing to neighbouring Sudan. "The day before yesterday (Thursday) when it was late at night and everyone was sleeping I undid my chains and escaped," said the man, after arriving in the Chadian capital from Sudan by plane. "I ran to the Sudanese border about 80 kilometres (50 miles) away and there I met Sudanese soldiers," he said, adding that eight people had kidnapped him and his driver and driven them towards the Sudanese border. The engineer, who had been working on a water supply project and is an employee of CGCOC-Chad, the local affiliate of a Chinese construction company, said he did not know why he was targeted. There have been conflicting accounts of events leading to his freedom. Chadian officials said he was freed after joint military action with Sudan and his kidnappers had been arrested. But a former Sudanese rebel faction said it had liberated the engineer although the abductors had managed to escape. A spokesman for the Minni Minnawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, Zonan Suliman, said the kidnappers had escaped without clashing with the ex-rebels. The Minnawi faction is the only Darfur rebel group to have signed a peace deal and ended its conflict with the Khartoum government. Chad and Sudan have strengthened their ties since Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who has been accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of war crimes and genocide in Darfur, attended a regional summit in N'Djamena in July. Darfur has been gripped by a civil war since 2003 that has left 300,000 people dead and 2.7 million displaced, according to the United Nations. The Khartoum government says 10,000 have been killed in the conflict. The strife-torn region of western Sudan has seen a wave of kidnappings since March 2009, when the ICC indicted Bashir for alleged war crimes.
earlier related report "These terrorists (kidnappers) were arrested, they will go to court and answer for their actions. We will not allow anyone to interfere with the peace of expatriates working in our country," Ahmat Mahamat Bachir said in N'Djamena. He did not specify the number or identity of the kidnappers who, according to corroborating Chadian sources, are from the region of Ennedi in eastern Chad, close to the Sudan border, where the Chinese engineer was seized last week. A spokesman for the Minni Minnawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, Zonan Suliman, had said earlier that the kidnappers had escaped without clashing with the ex-rebels. "Our troops released the Chinese engineer from the kidnappers," said Suliman. The engineer, whose name has not been given, had been working on a project to supply water to the town of Am-Djarass when he was kidnapped. He appears to be in good health and his release was peaceful, Suliman said. "There was no violence between our troops and the kidnappers," he said. "When they saw our forces they ran away and left the hostage." The Minnawi faction is the only Darfur rebel group to have signed a peace deal and ended its conflict with the Khartoum government. The former rebel leader is now an adviser to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The engineer is an employee of CGCOC-Chad, the local affiliate of a Chinese construction company that has many branches in Africa and Asia. He was released near the town of Tina in North Darfur state on Sudan's border with Chad and was handed over in Sudan to the Sudanese-Chadian force, Suliman said. The joint Sudanese-Chadian force was earlier sent to the region to search for him. Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno had been on holiday in the Ennedi region since early August, a Chadian official said following the kidnap. Chadian state radio said Deby had ordered the security forces to hunt down the kidnappers, and to "seize their families' goods and livestock." Chad and Sudan have strengthened their ties since Bashir, who has been accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of war crimes and genocide in Darfur, attended a regional summit in N'Djamena in July. Darfur has been gripped by a civil war since 2003 that has left 300,000 people dead and 2.7 million displaced, according to the United Nations. The Khartoum government says 10,000 have been killed in the conflict. The strife-torn region of western Sudan has seen a wave of kidnappings since March 2009, when the ICC indicted Bashir for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
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