KHARTOUM: Three foreign petroleum engineers abducted by South Sudanese rebels have been released after negotiations brokered by Sudan and Ethiopia, a Sudanese security agency said on Thursday. Indians Midhun Ganesh and Edward Ambrose and Pakistani Ayaz Hussein Jamali, who worked for DAR Petroleum, had been s
eized separately from near their workplaces earlier t
his month in oil-rich Upper Nile
state.
“Following requests from Indian and Pakistani governments, the Sudanese and Ethiopian governments c
oordinated together to secure the release of the three oil workers,” Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) said in a statement. It did not specify when the hostages were released. The Indians had been abducted on March 8 and the Pakistani on March 19. Officials said NISS c
oordinated the release of the hostages.
The three were brought to Khartoum on Thursday in a special aircraft from Ethiopia, an AFP correspondent reported.
“They kidnapped us in order to tell the international community that foreigners should leave South Sudan,” Jamali told reporters at t
he airport. “The rebels want to shut down all oil processing plants in South Sudan.”
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