Two employees of medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) kidnapped in Ituri in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo are in good health but are still being held hostage, the organisation said on Friday.
MSF ”again appeals for the immediate and unconditional liberation of its co-workers and is concerned about this prolonged captivity”, it said in a statement released on Geneva.
The two men, a French aid worker and a Congolese driver, disappeared on June 2 as they headed to a camp in the troubled region of Ituri. Witnesses told MSF that they had been stopped and led away by unidentified armed men.
The two are being held ”by an armed group from the province”, MSF said, but would not further identify the kidnappers.
It said the hostage-takers had made no demands for the release of the pair.
The charity said it had established contact with the kidnappers via an intermediary and was also in touch with the authorities in Kigali over the matter.
Inter-ethnic clashes between Hema and Lendu fighters in the volatile Ituri region, near the Ugandan border, have claimed at least 60 000 lives and forced more than 500 000 people to flee from their homes since 1999. – Sapa-AFP