SUDAN: Militia sets free remaining hostages

NAIROBI, 5 August 2002 (IRIN) - Two aid workers abducted in southern Sudan last week have been released following successful negotiations with the militia holding them, the United Nations said on Saturday. The two aid workers - a German and a Kenyan - were released from captivity in Yuai in Bieh State at 15:00 local time on Saturday and handed over to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, Michael Sackett, said in a statement. A third aid worker had been released by the militia on Thursday. Sackett called on all parties in Sudan "to ensure the safety of all humanitarian workers in Sudan". "Until the end it was not clear if we would be released today, but everything went well," Ekkeehard Forberg, one of the released men was quoted as saying by Reuters on Saturday. "All day there were different situations, it wasn't clear." The three relief workers were abducted during an attack by a government-backed militia led by Cdr Simon Gatwich on the town of Waat on Monday 29 July, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday. All three were employees of international aid agency World Vision, and were working on child malnutrition, immunisation and primary health care in and around Waat, in southern Sudan's Upper Nile State. A fourth World vision staff member, a Kenyan, Charles Kibbe, was killed during the attack on Waat. The World Vision team had only returned to Waat in June, having been evacuated in April after Gatwich's militia gained control of the town, according to the World Vision International website. Forces allied to the Sudan People's Defence Forces, a rebel group that in January merged with the main southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, recaptured Waat in June, facilitating the return of the World Vision team, the website said in a report dated 11 June.