French employee abducted in Eastern Chad

A French employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been abducted by armed men in eastern Chad. The ICRC says it is temporarily suspending operations in the area. It said its employee, Laurent Maurice, was seized yesterday in the village of Kawa, about 20 Kilometres from the border with Sudan.

The humanitarian organizations said it had no idea who the attackers were or what their motive might be. It called for the “rapid and unconditional release of its kidnapped staff member”.

The French Foreign Ministry also called for Mr. Maurice to be freed.

The aid worker, an agronomist, was in Kawa with five Chadian colleagues to evaluate the harvest, Attacks against NGO's are frequent in eastern Chad.

The region is home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people, including many made homeless by conflicts in Sudan's western Darfur region and the Central African Republic.

Another Frenchman working for the ICRC, Gauthier Lefevre, was abducted in Darfur last month and is still being held.