12 SA deminers kidnapped in Senegal

[iolsa]

Dakar -  Twelve employees of a South African demining company have been kidnapped in Senegal's restive Casamance region, the country's news agency said, quoting officials.

Workers of Mechem went missing on Friday and the regional authorities were seeking their release, the Senegalese news agency added.

It is not clear who was behind the kidnapping.

According to AP, Fred Weyers, the local director of Mechem, a Pretoria-based company that specialises in demining said that the 12 deminers went  missing on Friday between noon and 3pm and are believed to have been taken by rebels belonging to the MFDC rebel group, which has been fighting a low-level rebellion in the area for over a decade.

Weyers said: "I confirm that the 12 deminers we sent yesterday in the zone of Nyassia were abducted by combatants from the MFDC. They went to lay the groundwork for a demining operation."

The separatist Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC)  has been fighting for independence in Casamance since 1982.

The MFDC had banned clearing the area of mines, a local official  told the West African country's news agency, adding: "For them, clearing the area is synonymous with crime." - Sapa-dpa, IOL



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