Sudan pinpoints location of abducted aid workers

By Andrew Heavens

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese security services have pinpointed the area where armed men are holding two abducted female aid workers in Darfur, but have yet to contact the kidnappers, a government minister said on Wednesday.

Up to eight men seized the workers for Irish aid group GOAL, one Ugandan and one Irish, from their compound in the north Darfur town of Kutum on Friday -- the third kidnapping of foreigners in the remote western region in four months.

"The information that I received this morning is that the area where these people are hiding has been located," Sudan's state minister for humanitarian affairs Abdel Baqi al-Jailani told Reuters.

"Still there is no contact, but I am optimistic we will see progress soon."

The minister declined to name the area for fear of jeopardising negotiations. He added security forces had also asked local Darfuri leaders to try to persuade the abductors to release the captives.

"They will have their own ways and means to track down the exact location," he said. "Priority number one for us is the safety of the two ladies."

No one was immediately available to comment from GOAL, or a team of Irish diplomats and negotiators who have set up bases in Khartoum and El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, to help with efforts to free the women.

GOAL, which named the kidnapped women as Hilda Kawuki, 42, from Uganda, and Sharon Commins, 32, from Dublin, has suspended operations in the area.