The armed group which claimed responsibility for the recent attack on Kanar oil field in Sudan’s West Kordofan state has expressed its intention to release the kidnapped oil workers but on conditions.

The group leader previously told Radio Tamazuj that they kidnapped three oil workers including two Chinese and one Algerian, saying that the foreign engineers were in good health. The ringleader, Fadul Issa nicknamed ‘Abu Kian’, also said his group was aggrieved by the government’s refusal to employ 'sons and daughters' of West Kordofan in the oil sector.

Judging by the commander’s demands as well as his dialect, he appears to be a Misseriya Arab from the Kordofan region.

Yesterday the Akhbar El Youm newspaper reported that a source tasked to contact the abductors’ ringleader, ‘Abu Kian’, said that the group leader cited two conditions to consider a possible release of the kidnapped oil workers.

Abu Kian requested first the acquittal and subsequent release of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) members who are currently facing life imprisonment and death penalty charges in connection with 10 May 2008 attack on Omdurman.

The demand is noteworthy because last week government sources accused JEM of involvement in the kidnapping, while the movement denied this.

JEM’s spokesman said that Abu Kian was an opportunist who split from JEM more than two years ago and since joined militias commanded by the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).

The militant leader also demanded a ransom of $600,000 in exchange for the release of the three kidnapped oil workers, according to the same source.

The government is reportedly studying several options for dealing ‘decisively’ with these criminals, the source emphasized.

Five Chinese oil workers were murdered in West Kordofan in 2008, apparently when their kidnappers panicked after spotting a government helicopter tracking their movements. 

Photo: A satellite image of the southern part of the Republic of Sudan, showing the approximate area in which the abduction took place.