Africa

Home page

Africa

UN Staff Union seeks release of workers detained in Ethiopia, Sudan

30 April 2012 22:23 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The United Nations Staff Union on Monday urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to exert all efforts to ensure the release of two workers detained in Ethiopia and Sudan, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"The Staff Union urges the secretary-general to exert all efforts on the government of Sudan to ensure the release of the two detained peacekeepers," said a statement released here on Monday by the Union’s office.

"According to a UN official and press reports, two peacekeepers of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan ( UNMISS) are being held in the Sudan after being abducted on Feb. 24 from a base in South Sudan’s Northern Bahr Al Ghazel state," said the statement. "No details are available about who abducted the peacekeepers, why they are being held in the Sudan and why they have not been released."

According to press reports, Yusuf Mohammed, an Ethiopian national and United Nations local security assistant, has been languishing in a remote regional jail, without charges, since December 2010. Abdirahman Sheikh Hassan, a colleague of Mr. Mohammed in the United Nations Department of Safety and Security, has been detained since July 2011 and is prosecuted for links with the Ogaden National Liberation Front.

The statement also called upon Ban to "demand the Ethiopian government to release all United Nations staff members and rescind all restrictions on the United Nations equipment and to respect the independence of all United Nations staff, in accordance with international law."

The United Nations Staff Union and its Committee on the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service express great concern at recent events that represent a breach of the independence of the international civil service, said the statement.