French Red Cross worker Laurent Maurice arrived in Khartoum on Saturday hours after being freed following 89 days in captivity, first in Chad and then in Sudan’s volatile Darfur region.
A smiling Maurice, wearing sandals and sporting a thick black beard, underwent medical tests at the Al-Amal Al-Watani military hospital after being flown into the capital.
“Having spent three months in captivity, I now feel the need for freedom, and to see my friends, my family and my colleagues,” the 37-year-old agronomist said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
He said he had not been beaten or threatened by his kidnappers — a shadowy group calling itself the Falcons for the Liberation of Africa.
Maurice was seized by armed men on Nov. 9, last year in eastern Chad, where he was assessing the harvest, just 10km from the Sudanese border.
The group then took him to Darfur, the scene since 2003 of a brutal war and wave of kidnappings of foreigners in the past year.
“I was alone during the day and at night they had me come to the campfire to eat. We were always outside in the middle of the bush,” Maurice said.
He said it was quickly clear to him that his the kidnappers didn’t intend to harm him and that the worst were the psychological aspects of being a hostage, made more difficult by his kidnappers not speaking French.
In order the pass the time Maurice said he played cards and thought of family and friends.
“I thought about being freed and what would happen afterwards. Hope springs eternal as they say,” he said.
On Saturday his kidnappers said they freed Maurice because of France’s “positive role” in repairing ties between Chad and Sudan.
“We have indeed released Laurent Maurice. We did not act for money but because we wanted France to change its policies in the region,” Abu Mohammed al-Rizeigi, spokesman for the group, said by telephone.
“We appreciate the positive role that France has played in the latest negotiations between Chad and Sudan,” Rizeigi said.
Sudan and Chad, which have traded accusations of supporting rebel groups in each other’s countries, are in the process of setting up a joint peace force along their border.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said earlier that no ransom was paid.
Maurice “regained his freedom today... after 89 days in captivity, he is tired but appears to be in good health,” the ICRC said, adding fellow staff member Gauthier Lefevre, kidnapped in Darfur, was still being held.
“ICRC policy is to never pay a ransom,” a spokesman said.
Sudan’s Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Abdel Baqi Gilani echoed these remarks and said: “No ransom was paid. Sudan, however, gave logistic help by providing vehicles and fuel during the mediation.”
The ICRC declined to give details about Maurice’s release in order not to jeopardize negotiations for the release of Lefevre, who was kidnapped in October in West Darfur.
Paris welcomed the release with French President Nicolas Sarkozy calling for the quick release of all other French aid workers being held in Africa — remarks echoed by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
“Targeting non-governmental organizations and their staff — to whom I pay tribute — is unacceptable,” Kouchner said.
The Falcons group has also claimed the kidnapping of two other French aid workers, whom Rizeigi said are “still with us.”
The ICRC said it “remains very concerned about Mr Lefevre and continues to press for his unconditional release.”
Jordi Raich, the head of the ICRC’s delegation in Sudan, did not say how Maurice had been freed.
“The ICRC is relieved that Laurent is now free, and happy that he will soon be back with his family and friends,” he said. “We would like to express our profound gratitude to all those who helped us in one way or another during his captivity.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in