Red Cross urges release of staff kidnapped in DRCongo

Kinshasa, DR Congo | AFP |  The International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday urged the release of two of its staff kidnapped after armed men attacked their convoy in the troubled eastern DR Congo.

The ICRC said the workers were abducted on Wednesday morning while on a humanitarian mission between Kirumba and Beni in North Kivu province.

“We are launching an appeal to the kidnappers to immediately free our colleagues, safe and sound, and facilitate their return,” the aid group said in a statement.

The ICRC has suspended all work in the region, where it is helping 5,000 families, it said.

The eastern DR Congo has been rocked by more than 20 years of armed conflict among both domestic and foreign armed groups, fuelled by struggle for control of lucrative mineral resources as well as ethnic and property disputes.

The area of North Kivu where the aid workers were abducted has served as a base for Hutu rebels fighting with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) since 1994 and sees frequent kidnappings.