Sudanese forces were laying siege on Wednesday to a remote desert hideout where bandits have 19 people captive, including European tourists, but said they did not plan to storm the area.
The tourists, along with Egyptian drivers, guides and a guard, were snatched by masked gunmen on Friday during a desert safari to view prehistoric art around Gilf el-Kabir in south-western Egypt, and then taken to Sudan.
A Sudanese official said the hostages were alive and that negotiations were continuing with the kidnappers, who have reportedly demanded a ransom of up to $15-million.
”Our aim is to help secure their release unharmed as quickly as possible,” Ali Yousuf, director of protocol at the Foreign Ministry, said.
Several elderly travellers, some in their 70s, are among the five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian being held in the desert, where day-time temperatures can hit 40 degrees Celsius.
”The hostages are all well, according to the information that we have,” Yousuf said. ”We are in constant communication with the Egyptian, German, Italian and Romanian authorities.”
He said Germany was in contact with the kidnappers. Germany has not commented on its role beyond saying it has set up a crisis group.
An Egyptian security official, who asked not to be named, said he hoped the drama would be resolved ”in a day or two”.
Sudan said on Tuesday its forces ”are besieging the area”, a no-man’s land straddling the Sudanese, Libyan and Egyptian borders.
”Their position has been pinpointed and there is coordination between Sudan and Egyptian authorities in this regard, [but] there is no intention of storming into the area so as to preserve the lives of the kidnapped persons,” Foreign Ministry undersecretary Mutrief Sadiq said.
An Egyptian security official said the kidnappers were ”most likely Chadian”, after Sudan said they were Egyptian nationals.
Sudan has said the group is being held 25km inside its territory at Jebel Uweinat, or mountain of small springs.
Egypt’s independent al-Masry al-Youm newspaper reported that five pieces of luggage had been found scattered inside Egypt, apparently thrown from moving vehicles.
Egypt has said the hostages are in good health and have enough food and water. ”They have not been badly treated,” Tourism Minister Zuhair Garana said on Tuesday.
The Tourism Ministry in Egypt — which relies heavily on earnings from foreign visitors — has said it was ”an act of banditry, not of terrorism”.
Egypt has also denied reports the kidnappers had threatened to kill the hostages if any attempt were made to rescue them.
The Egyptian side is 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.
Authorities only became aware of the abduction on Monday when the tour group leader phoned his wife to tell her of the ransom demand.
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. — Sapa-AFP