The 19 tourists and Egyptians kidnapped in the Sahara desert have been located in good health but authorities ”do not want an operation that harms the hostages”, Egyptian and Sudanese officials said on Tuesday.
”They are now in an area of no-man’s land between the Sudanese, Libyan and Egyptian border, in the area of Jebel Uweinat,” Sudanese Foreign Ministry undersecretary Boutros Sadiq told journalists in Khartoum.
”Their position has been pinpointed and there is coordination between Sudan and Egyptian authorities in this regard.
”From our point of view the security of the hostages is the absolute priority — we do not want an operation that harms hostages.”
Asked whether an operation was being planned, he said ”we are coordinating”.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Zuhair Garana said earlier that the group of 11 foreigners and eight Egyptians, snatched by masked gunmen on Friday while on a desert safari in Egypt’s remote south-west, were in ”very good health”.
”We have very sure and reliable information that everyone is fine; they are in very good health and they have enough food and water. They have not been badly treated,” he said.
”We are going to continue our efforts to release the hostages and we will do that until this unfortunate incident is completely resolved.”
Garana flatly denied reports the kidnappers had threatened to kill the hostages — including five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian — if any attempt were made to rescue them.
”Unfortunately there have been so many rumours. One of them is [a death threat] in case of security officials trying to rescue the hostages. We never received any threats whatsoever.”
He said Egypt had no direct contact with the kidnappers but was being kept updated by the German wife of the Egyptian tour group leader who has been speaking to her husband via satellite telephone.
Egypt has sent a team to Sudan to try to secure the release of the hostages, a security official said.
Garana said reported ransom figures of six, eight or $15-million ”are not accurate … there are no accurate figures”.
Garana said the group was being held in the Sudanese part of Karak Talh, a rugged and largely uninhabited region straddling Egypt, Sudan and Libya. They started their safari near Gilf el-Kabir, just north of the border with Sudan.
Jebel Uweinat, meaning mountain of small springs, where Sadiq said the group had been found, is a range that lies west of Karak Talh.
Egypt was forced to deny a statement by its own Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit in New York on Monday that all 19 had been freed, dashing hopes of a swift end to the drama.
Romanian ambassador to Cairo Gheorghe Dumitrou said the situation was unchanged on Tuesday.
An Italian source in Cairo said the missing Italians were three women and two men, some in their 70s.
The tourism ministry in Egypt — which relies heavily on earnings from foreign visitors — stressed that ”this is an act of banditry not of terrorism”.
”Four masked gunmen attacked four vehicles affiliated to a tourist company. They kidnapped the tourists and led them to the Sudanese lands,” Mena quoted the ministry as saying.
Authorities only became aware of the abduction when the tour company owner, an Egyptian who is among the missing, used a satellite telephone to call his German wife and tell her of the ransom demand.
Mena said he called again late on Monday to tell her they were ”safe and sound”.
The area of the kidnapping is a desert plateau famous for prehistoric cave paintings, including the ”Cave of the Swimmers” featured in the 1996 film The English Patient.
One travel agent said in January a German group was attacked and robbed in the same area. They were abandoned in the desert with nothing but a satellite telephone. It is not known who the attackers were.
Kidnappings of foreigners are extremely rare in Egypt, although in 2001 an armed Egyptian held four German tourists hostage for three days in Luxor, demanding that his estranged wife bring his two sons back from Germany. He freed the hostages unharmed.
Egypt has, however, witnessed a number of deadly attacks against foreigners which have been blamed on al-Qaeda and other Islamist militants.
The most recent occurred between 2004 and 2006 in popular Red Sea resorts, killing dozens. – AFP
