Sudanese insurgents who have taken 29 Chinese workers hostage in the volatile border area between Sudan and South Sudan say they will be released “in the very near future” but declined to say when.
Their capture has raised concerns that they are being used as political pawns to secure aid and a ceasefire for the troubled region, claims that have been denied by their captors.
Arnu Ngutulu Lodi, one of a three-man committee from the SPLM-North formed to oversee the release of the Chinese workers, told the Financial Times he could not give an accurate time for their release.“Not today, [not] even tomorrow, we do not yet know exactly when the time will be,” he said, because it was hard to secure a safe route out amid continued bombing. “But we are going ahead with the release in the very near future.”