Gereida camp Darfur, Sudan. ©ICRC/B. Heger
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The fate of Gauthier Lefevre, 35, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegate abducted 22 October in the west Darfur region of Sudan, is still uncertain, according to Daniel Duvillard, ICRC’s chief of operations for Eastern Africa, in an interview 29 October.
ICRC confirms that it has received a ransom request, but as a matter of policy it does not pay ransoms. It is using all the channels at its disposal to obtain the release of Lefevre, and insists with his captors that his physical integrity be ensured. ICRC officials managed to speak to him two days after his capture, and he confirmed that he was being well treated.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – ICRC employee Gauthier Lefevre was taken by armed men near the town of al-Junaynah, West Darfur, Sudan near the border with Chad at about noon, yesterday 22 October, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. Gauthier, a French national, was returning to town in an ICRC-marked vehicle with colleagues after a field trip to check water supply systems for local communities north of the town, when he was seized.
The ICRC said neither the identity of the abductors nor their motives were known. It said it had immediately contacted local authorities and other parties in order to secure Lefevre’s release.
