Sudan: Chinese Workers Released in Sudan

Khartoum ---A group of Chinese workers kidnapped 11 days ago by rebels in Sudan have been freed and flown to Kenya, officials from both countries have said.

The group made up of 29 Chinese nationals was flown Tuesday by a Red Cross plane to the Chinese embassy in Nairobi from Kauda town in Nuba Mountains, according to Sudan’s Foreign Ministry.

"The Sudanese authorities allowed a Red Cross plane to take them from Kauda to Nairobi ... this Tuesday morning where they were given to the Chinese embassy there," read a statement by the ministry.

The captives who were road construction workers had been held by Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) rebels since January 28 when the rebels stormed their camp in Nuba Mountains in restive border state of South Kordofan after taking over the area. 17 of 18 people who had fled the scene were later found safe, as the body of one man killed during the SPLM-N raid has been handed over to the Chinese embassy in Khartoum.

Since June Kauda has been centre of fighting between government troops and rebels, after the government embarked on a disarmament operation against the rebel group that had been fighting alongside now independent South Sudan rulers during the civil war.

The release comes after SPLM-N spokesman Arnu Ngutulu had said on Monday that the rebels were directly in touch with the Beijing government and not through a six-member envoy sent by Beijing to Khartoum to help secure the release.

China is Sudan’s major trading partner; being the largest buyer of the Sudanese oil and key military supplier to Khartoum, but the abduction-third involving Chinese nationals since 2004 is said to have strained the relations.

China is trying to mediate a bitter dispute between South Sudan and Sudan over oil, which is produced primarily in South Sudan but runs through pipelines in the north for export.

About 30,000 people are said to have fled after the rebels took over the area according to the UN, which affirms to a statement by the US that there could be a famine unless urgent aid is allowed to enter South Kordofan and Blue Nile state where a similar war began in September. The Sudanese government has banned all foreign aid operations in the two states.

 Dakar, Senegal

Anti-Wade Protest Rallies in Capital

Thousands of Senegal’s opposition supporters marched through the streets of the capital on Tuesday in protest against incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade’s plans to seek a controversial third term in the upcoming vote.

The anti-Wade march called on Tuesday under the opposition umbrella group M23 began outside the capital’s Dakar University and had planned to make their way to the interior ministry, few buildings away from the presidential palace.

The 85-year-old Wade is expected to face 13 other opposition candidates in the February 26 presidential polls after the country’s highest court cleared him to run for a third term although the constitution calls for a maximum of two terms.

Wade maintains the 2001 amendment pre-dated his first term in 2000 and would start count after his 2007 re-election, giving him another chance in the upcoming vote.

Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, Wade's former foreign minister  and one of the aspirants, said on Monday during an M23 meeting  that the opposition would refuse to recognise the vote if the president took part.

"If Abdoulaye Wade persists, we will not recognise him, nor recognise his government and we will organise a campaign for the recognition of a national transition council which we will create," he said.

Mr. Gadio suggested for a parallel vote among opposition candidates, terming it as the “only way to serve Senegal with honour and dignity” by opposing Wade’s unconstitutional candidacy to the end.

The movement comprises of eight opposition candidates including the famed musician Youssou N’dour who among other three were barred to run in the election by court in what it termed as could not verify their candidacy.

Police kept a close watch in the streets during the opposition march, which the government had banned from entering the suburbs where the interior ministry was located. Last week’s violence from similar protests demanding President Wade to drop his plans to run again left four people dead, prompting calls by international rights groups on the government to halt clampdown on protestors.

Both the United States and France have expressed disappointment in his plans, and urged a generational change in the country's highest office. Wade came to power in 2000 ending the country’s Socialist rule, after staging four unsuccessful presidential bids during his 26 years in opposition.

Wade, who has promised free and fair elections, says he needs three more years to complete his projects, even after much accusation by the opposition for trying to groom his son Karim Wade as successor in the West African country that has never seen unrest since independence.