Region | Egypt
Officials confirm tourists traced in 'no-man's land'
The 19 tourists kidnapped in the Sahara desert have been located in good health but authorities "do not want an operation that harms the hostages", Egyptian and Sudanese officials said on Tuesday.
- Agencies
- Published: 10:30 September 23, 2008
- A group of 19 people are believed to have been seized on Friday from a safari in Egypt's desert.
- Image Credit: AP
Cairo: The 19 tourists kidnapped in the Sahara desert have been located in good health but authorities "do not want an operation that harms the hostages", Egyptian and Sudanese officials said on Tuesday.
The kidnappers have threatened to kill the hostages if they detect any aerial rescue attempt, an Egyptian official said on Tuesday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the kidnapped tour operator had contacted his German wife and told her of the threat, and that she had since alerted Egyptian authorities.
"They are now in an area of no-man's land between the Sudanese, Libyan and Egyptian border, in the area of Jebel Uweinat," Sudanese foreign ministry undersecretary Mutrief Sadiq told journalists in Khartoum.
"Their position has been pinpointed and there is coordination between Sudan and Egyptian authorities in this regard.
Absolute priority
"From our point of view the security of the hostages is the absolute priority - we do not want an operation that harms hostages."
Asked whether a rescue operation was being considered, he said: "We are coordinating."
Egyptian Tourism Minister Zuhair Garana said earlier that the group of 11 foreigners and eight Egyptians, snatched by masked gunmen on Friday while on a desert safari in Egypt's remote southwest, were in "very good health".
"We have very sure and reliable information that everyone is fine; they are in very good health and they have enough food and water. They have not been badly treated," he said.
Garana flatly denied reports the kidnappers had threatened to kill the hostages - including five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian - if any attempt was made to rescue them.
He however said Egypt had no direct contact with the kidnappers but was being kept updated by the German wife of the Egyptian tour group leader who has been speaking to her husband via satellite telephone.
Egypt has sent a team to Sudan to try to secure the release of the hostages, a security official said.
Garana rejected reports of ransom demands ranging between $6-$15 million as "not accurate."
German ambassador to Cairo Bernd Erbel told Garana that "the German government is having contacts with the kidnappers over their ransom demand," Mena quoted Garana as saying.
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