Red Cross worker freed after 147 days of captivity
March 18, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – British-French aid worker Gauthier Lefèvre was released today without ransom after months in capitivity. He had been held since October 22, 2009 – a total of 147 days in captivity
The aid worker is an employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). He is supposedly the last captive aid worker who was being held in Sudan.
Mr. Lefèvre was released on 18 March close to Al Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, according to a press released from ICRC.
Mr Lefèvre was abducted a few kilometres north of Al Geneina as he was returning to the town with other ICRC staff from a field trip.
An ICRC official in Sudan expressed relief that Gauthier will soon be back with his family and friends. Another official in Geneva thanked those who worked for Gauthier’s release.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy sent a thank you note to Sudanese authorities for their assistance.
Another French ICRC worker, Laurent Maurice, had been release in January after 89 days in captivity. He was an agronomist who was assessing the most recent harvest when he was abducted in Kawa in eastern Chad.
Furthermore, two other French aid workers were freed two days ago. They had been held since November by the ‘African Free Eagles’, a hostage-taking group that surfaced about a month after the war crimes indictment of the Sudanese president.
ICRC noted in its latest statement that its operations in Sudan date to 1978 but it began responding particularly in 2004 to “needs arising from the hostilities in Darfur.” The ICRC’s operation in Sudan is one of its largest in the world.
(ST)