In Darfur, five employees of the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, MSF, have been found safe. They had disappeared during recent fighting there. English to Africa reporter Kim Lewis talked with Ton Koene, emergency director for Doctors Without Borders.
From Amsterdam, he told her that although they’ve found five of their workers, 12 are still missing. Mr. Koene said, “During the attack people fled in all different directions.” He said of 30 thousand displaced people, they now know the whereabouts of only seven thousand.
As for the 12 MSF employees who are still missing, Mr. Koene said mobile teams have been set up to look for them. He said they “might be staying with their families in the area; they might be well off, or at least not dead.”
Mr. Koene says, “Over Christmas, we hope to get reports through our other staff – where they are, whether they’re okay.” He said as a humanitarian worker he didn’t want to comment on the political situation.
Mr. Koene said another thing that concerns him is that many people have fled to the north but are being told by authorities that they must return to the south, “which they don’t want to do because it’s too insecure.” He said he hopes they will not be forced to return.
