OTTAWA - Word from Ottawa that an investigation showed the identity of a man kidnapped by rebels in a Sudanese oil field is not Canadian.
Two workers were abducted Tuesday after rebels from Darfur attacked an oil field in a neighbouring region of Sudan.
A rebel chief said the group has given foreign oil companies in the region, especially the Chinese, a one-week ultimatum to cease operations.
The Justice and Equality Movement, one of the leading Darfur rebel groups, said it attacked the Defra oil field in the Kordofan region on Tuesday, inflicting losses to the Sudanese army and abducting the two foreign workers. Local media had identified one of the two as a Canadian.
However, Mohamed Bahr Hamdeen, the head of JEM for the region told The Canadian Press Thursday that the two hostages were one Iraqi and one Egyptian.
In Ottawa, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs said Saturday consular officials were able to confirm that a Canadian was not kidnapped.
