Aid workers kidnapped in Darfur

Three people working for a medical charity have been kidnapped in Sudan's Darfur region.The three were working in North Darfur for Medecins sans Frontieres' Belgian branch along with two local staff who were released yesterday.It comes after Sudan threw 13 aid agencies out of the country, earlier this month.They were told to leave after President Omar al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.SOS Children still has staff working with families in the region.

The aid workers were taken at gunpoint from the MSF Belgium office at Saraf Umra, west of the North Darfur capital El Fasher, yesterday evening, according to the BBC. Those kidnapped included a Canadian nurse, an Italian doctor and a French co-ordinator.Two Sudanese staff were also taken but have since been freed.The area where they were working is notorious for banditry, said the BBC's East Africa correspondent Karen Allen.

But the timing of the kidnapping will inevitably prompt questions about whether it was a political act. Senior government officials have warned that foreigners could be targeted by extremists in the wake of an arrest warrant for the country's president.Sudan’s capital Khartoum, reacted angrily to the international warrant for President Bashir, calling it as a "neo-colonialist" move to destabilise the country. Afterwards, the president expelled 13 aid agencies accusing them of taking "99% of the budget for humanitarian work themselves, and giving the people of Darfur 1%" - charges the groups deny.

Mr Bashir also threatened to kick out more foreign workers if they did not obey Sudan's laws.But kicking out the aid agencies, which supply food and water, puts more than one million lives at risk, warns the United Nations.The UN estimates that 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million been displaced, since black African rebels took up arms in 2003 against the Arab-dominated regime demanding a greater share of resources and power.Mr Bashir has always denied that his government helped mobilise the Janjaweed militias accused of the worst atrocities against civilians in Darfur.

The conflict in Darfur in western Sudan began in 2003 after rebel groups began attacking government targets, saying their communities were being discriminated against in favour of Arabs.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children