MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. Russia’s Embassy in Sudan is taking active steps in an effort to release two Russian citizens who were abducted in Sudan’s Central Darfur state last week, the embassy’s press attache said on Tuesday.
"All the necessary measures are being taken on their release," Artur Safukov said, adding that an emergency response team has joined the effort. "The Russian side is coordinating actions with Sudan’s authorities and the United Nations representatives," he said.
The diplomat refused to give any further details, including on the Russians’ names, citing security reasons. He also failed to say whether the abductors have made any ransom demands.
A spokesperson for Russia’s UTair company confirmed earlier on Tuesday that its two employees working under a contract with United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAUMID) were abducted in the town of Zalingei, in Sudan’s Central Darfur state, on January 29.
The Russians were blocked in a UNAUMID minibus by six vehicles, the spokesman said, adding: "The passengers, who were held at gunpoint, were forced to leave the bus and were taken in an unknown direction."
An initial inquiry into the abduction in Sudan is ongoing, an official spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee (IC), Vladimir Markin, said on Tuesday.