Three "Russian -speaking" helicopters were stolen in Darfur

On Thursday, unknown people stole three helicopters in Sudan, the Echo of Moscow reports. At first it was reported that these are Russian citizens, but subsequently, ITAR-TASS reports, it turned out that there were no citizens of Russia among the stolen ones. This was stated by the head of the consular department of the Russian Embassy in Sudan Evgeny Arzantsev. He said that the abducted are employees of the Latvian airline GM Helicopter.

But the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation in Sudan Mikhail Margelov is not sure that the pilots are not Russian citizens. At the moment, their citizenship has not been established, he said.

"It is only known that these are Russian -speaking pilots working on the line of the World Food Program. We keep in touch with the embassy and find out the circumstances of the abduction. I hope that in the coming hours everything will be clear," he said on Friday Interfax .

According to Margelov, at the moment he is trying to find out the details of the abduction and understand which citizens of which country are stolen.

"Foreigners are targets for abductors in different countries of Asia and Africa. The ransom received for foreigners is a reliable source of income for a certain category of residents of developing countries," the Russian special representative in the Sudan explained.

This story, Margelov emphasized, "is another warning to all those who are going to go or work or rest in exotic countries."

The incident occurred in the city of Nyala, the capital of the province of South Darfur. Employees of law enforcement agencies pursue the kidnappers, said the Governor of the province of South Darfur Abdel Hamid Musa Kasha.

He added, reports to Reuters that the pilots were stolen from a minibus in which they rode around the city, two hours before the sunset. According to the governor of the porridge, the pilots stole the same group as in August.

Recall, on August 29, three Russian pilots were captured near their place of residence in Nyal. The Russians worked for the Badr Airlines private airline, which is engaged in the transportation of food and other civilian goods as part of the tasks of the Mixed Operation of the UN and Afrogosyuz in Darfur.

A few days later, Russian citizens were released . According to the governor, the border guard forces had to enter into a shootout with the kidnappers to free the Russians. As a result of the collision, some of the bandits were killed. According to him, the rest of the abductors were captured, and their further fate will be decided by the court. At the same time, Kasha emphasized that the state authorities did not pay a ransom for the release of hostages.

On the day of abduction of Russian caps from captivity in South Darfur, an American employee of the humanitarian non -governmental organization Samaritan's Purse ("Suma Samaritan") was released. She was in the hands of the abductors for more than 100 days. A month before, the helicopter commander Yevgeny Mostovshchikov, a Russian citizen, was released from captivity.

As the governor of Kasha stated shortly after the release of the Russians, the local authorities intend to strictly respond to hostage captures and are “ready to use all methods, including power, in order to stop the activities of groups that abduct foreigners.” According to the governor, the abduction of foreign citizens threaten the development of the region and negatively affect the image of Sudan as a whole.