UN peacekeeping force in Darfur denies hijacking of Russian helicopter
July 28th, 2010 - 12:59 am ICT by BNO NewsDARFUR, SUDAN (BNO NEWS) – Kemal Saiki, a spokesman of the United Nations-African Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), said on Tuesday that the recent reports of a helicopter captured by rebels in Darfur are wrong, denying the Russian claims.
Saiki informed that the situation was caused by the pilot of the helicopter, who landed in a different spot from the one originally planned due to bad weather.
The Russian embassy was informed of the situation and now says that the situation was no longer being treated as a hostage taking as there have not been ransom demands. It also took into account the UNAMID reports of the helicopter landing in the wrong place.
However, Russia said that three Russian members of the crew and one Sudanese are safe but the captain is missing. They landed in a safe zone controlled by the Sudanese government and UNAMID is searching for the location of the missing pilot.
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Tags: bad weather, bno, darfur, helicopter landing, hostage, kemal, pilot, ransom demands, rebels, russia, russian claims, russian embassy, russian helicopter, safe zone, spokesman, sudan, sudanese government, un peacekeeping force, unamid, united nations