A driver for Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), employed to deliver relief in Darfur, Sudan, remains missing after being abducted en route from a food nutrition centre Wednesday afternoon.
Ahmed Abaker was taken at gun point in the afternoon in Shaba, West Darfur, while driving six passengers in one of two vehicles back from a food centre in Warda.
Five men ordered all six passengers and the driver out of the vehicle, and after stealing their personal property, instructed Abaker back into the driver's seat, shot two bullets in the direction of the passengers and drove off.
The passengers were unharmed while passengers in the second vehicle managed to turn around and escape. The men are described as wearing Khaki uniforms and carrying Kalashniknov rifles, though it is not known whether or not they were part of any particular rebel or government-sponsored militia group.
"Out of the entire pool of drivers, I remember two people as being dependable and just all around fine people, and Ahmed Abaker was one of them," remarks Elly Dalmaijer, who worked for CRWRC in Darfur with her husband, Jack in 2005.
CRWRC works with 90,000 people affected by the conflict in Darfur as part of the consortium registered as World Relief US in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur. The programme is multi-sectoral supplying food, medicines, clean water and sanitation, as well as agricultural inputs and training. CRWRC has been providing skilled volunteers, financial resources and expert consulting in Darfur since 2004.
