Sep 13, 2012
AMMAN -- Police officials on Thursday said they were negotiating with the kidnappers of two Jordanian peacekeepers who were abducted in Sudan last month and that both officers were still alive.
"Negotiations are ongoing with the kidnappers and we are hopeful that we will reach a solution and both officers will return home safely," a senior police official told The Jordan Times.
The official's remarks came after a three-day deadline allegedly imposed by the kidnappers for the payment of a ransom expired.
On Tuesday, the brother of one of the officers told the Public Security Department [PSD] that he had been contacted by an individual who demanded $3 million in return for his brother's life.
"We are still taking this threat seriously and are in constant negotiations with the kidnappers... we are certain that this ordeal will end peacefully," the official source added.
The two Jordanians were with a team of peacekeepers who went to buy supplies for their camp from a market in Kabkabiya near the North Darfur state capital Al Fashir and were reported missing when they failed to rendezvous with their colleagues after two hours on August 21.
A high-level PSD delegation that went to Darfur on August 26 to follow up on the investigation into the disappearance of the two men is still there, according to the source.
The PSD delegation is meeting daily with UN and military officials in Darfur to follow up on the Jordanian officers' disappearance until they are found and brought home unharmed, police officials have told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.
The Jordanian peacekeepers were serving in the African Union-UN mission (UNAMID) in the Darfur region of western Sudan.
UNAMID is the world's largest peacekeeping operation, with almost 17,000 troops and 5,000 police whose core mandate is to protect civilians in Darfur where rebels drawn from black African tribes rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government in 2003, according to Agence France-Presse.
The conflict has killed at least 300,000 people, according to UN estimates. The government says 10,000 have died.
Clashes between rebels and government troops, kidnappings, banditry and inter-ethnic fighting continue in the region, although Khartoum last year signed a peace deal with rebel splinter factions, AFP said.
Jordanian peacekeepers are stationed in several parts of the world, mainly in the Congo, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire and Haiti.
© Jordan Times 2012
