I’m grateful to be going home for Christmas, there are few things more important than friends and family. Please remember in your thoughts and prayers some folks who probably won’t be as fortunate as myself:
CAR: November 2009 – Two French aidworkers were kidnapped from their compound in the Central African Republic town of Birao on the border with Chad and Sudan
CHAD: November 2009 – Frenchman Laurent Maurice, an agronomist, was kidnapped on Nov. 9 near the border with Sudan, the International Committee for the Red Cross said. The ICRC suspended its activities in the region on Nov. 10.
MALI: November 2009 – Pierre Kamat, a Frenchman, was kidnapped on Nov. 25 after visiting the town of Tinderman, officials said.
MAURITANIA: November 2009 – Albert Vilalta, Alicia Gamez and Roque Pascual disappeared on Nov. 29 from a convoy run by a Barcelona-based humanitarian aid organisation to deliver computers and other equipment to poor communities. Mauritanian security sources said an attack took place on the road between the capital Nouakchott and the coastal trading city of Nouadhibou.
SOMALIA: April 2008 – A Briton and a Kenyan working on a U.N.-funded project were seized by gunmen and taken to Jilib, 280 km (175 miles) south of Mogadishu. They are still being held.
SUDAN: August 2009 – Armed men seized two foreign civilians working for Darfur’s peacekeeping force on Aug. 29, the first time the joint U.N./African Union mission has been targeted by kidnappers. A Nigerian man and the Tanzanian woman were taken from their residence in the town of Zalingei in west Darfur. October 2009 – French aid worker Gauthier Lefevre was captured in Darfur on Oct. 22. The 35-year-old is head of the ICRC’s office in el-Geneina, west Darfur, and his captors have demanded a $1 million ransom. Sudan has refused to pay. Sudan arrested three Sudanese in late November suspected of helping to kidnap Lefevre.
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We are grateful that you have been able to serve in this country in relative safety. We are also so excited about your brief return to hearth and home. Our prayers will not cease for those who have had their freedom taken from them. Their families and friends will also be remembered.