October 20, 2008	Monday	Shawwal 20, 1429

KHARTOUM: Kidnappers have snatched nine Chinese oil workers in central Sudan, the third such incident this year in the oil-producing region, diplomats said on Sunday.Chinese Embassy spokesman Raymond Yu said the kidnappers abducted the workers on Saturday in South Kordofan, source of a large part of Sudan’s oil wealth. China is the biggest foreign investor in the African country.

Diplomats said the kidnappers were probably members of the same tribal group that seized four Indian oil worker and their driver in the region in May. The captors were described at the time as disaffected locals.

Yu said it was too early to identify the kidnappers.

One diplomat said the nine men and two Sudanese drivers were seized from a small field while doing contract work for the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), a consortium led by China’s CNPC, that also includes India’s ONGC, Malaysia’s Petronas and Sudan’s state-owned Sudapet.

“One driver was released and handed over a note by the captors demanding a settlement through a share of oil production,” a diplomatic source said.

The source said locals had ransacked a Chinese camp in the same area two weeks ago and took everything “including the beds and bed sheets.” “This is a dangerous area. This could happen again.”

—Reuters