Hijackers surrender in Libya, free all passengers
Two hijackers of a Sudanese plane surrendered to Libyan authorities at a remote desert airport yesterday after freeing all passengers on board, almost 24 hours after the drama began.
"They have now surrendered," a Libya official said from the airport in Kufra, an oasis in southeastern Libya.
The two hijackers, who claimed to be from Sudan's conflict-ridden region of Darfur, hijacked the plane on Tuesday shortly after take-off from Darfur's main city of Nyala on a flight to the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
But they gave themselves up, several hours after releasing all 87 passengers from the Sun Air Boeing 737 which was forced to land on Tuesday evening after it ran short of fuel.
Libyan state television showed visibly tired but relieved passengers surrounded by Libyan soldiers following their liberation.
"The night was terrifying and difficult. I thank the Libyan authorities for their efforts which allowed us to be freed," a Sudanese passenger told the station.
Another passenger said the hijackers were armed with small calibre pistols.
The passengers had reportedly been given water but no food and some fainted when the air conditioning failed in the searing desert heat.
The hijackers, who had refused to talk directly with Libyan officials, said they belong to the Sudanese Liberation Army, whose exiled leader Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur lives in Paris, according to airport director Khaled Saseya.
An official at the World War II-era military airport had said earlier that the hijackers were continuing to hold the crew and were demanding a flight plan to Paris and fuel.
"All of the passengers have left the plane," a Libyan official had said earlier. "The two hijackers and the seven crew are still inside. We are continuing to negotiate with them."
Libya's civil aviation director Mohammed Shlibaq said that two Egyptian members of the UN-led Darfur peacekeeping force, two Ethiopians and a Ugandan were among the passengers, the official JANA news agency reported.
JANA also reported that several Sudanese officials were among the passengers released by the hijackers, including the tribal affairs adviser at the Provisional Authority in Darfur Yaqub al-Malik Mohamed Yaqub.
No Darfur movement has claimed public responsibility, but the director of Kufra airport said the hijackers belong to a faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army, whose exiled leader Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur lives in Paris.
The pilot said "the hijackers claim to have coordinated with him (Nur) to join him in Paris," Kufra airport director Khaled Saseya told JANA, adding that they had demanded a flight plan to Paris and fuel.
Nur, whose group was one of two Darfur movements that first rose up against the Arab-dominated government in 2003, denied any involvement while SLA commander Ibrahim al-Hillo suggested the hijackers could be Nur sympathisers.
"We don't have any relation with that hijacking," Hillo told AFP.
The SLA has fractured into multiple groups headed by different field commanders over the more than five years of war in Sudan's western Darfur region.
The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million fled their homes since war in Darfur erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.
Ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power.
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