Médecines Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) announced on Thursday, March 12th 2009 that it would be pulling its remaining departments: the Belgian, Swiss, and Spanish arms of the organization, out of the Darfur region following the kidnapping of five of its aid workers 230 kilometers west of the North Darfur capital in Saraf Umra.

Christopher Stokes, the director general of the organization’s Belgian department said that they were beginning the process of pulling the last teams out of the Darfur region as a safety precaution until all of those abducted are freed. All chapters of the organization will be pulled out leaving only a few staff members to handle the abduction.

The aid workers abducted on the night of Wednesday, March 11th include a Canadian nurse, an Italian doctor and a French coordinator, all three have yet to be named. Two local aid workers were also abducted with them but were subsequently released shortly after.

On March 4th, an arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for current President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, for Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes. It was the first time such a warrant has ever been issued for a serving head-of-state by the ICC. Bashir immediately expelled 13 aid agencies following the arrest warrant including the French and Dutch departments of Médecines Sans Frontières claiming that the aid groups were cooperating with the ICC and threatened Sudan’s security.

The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that four of the partner relief agencies expelled managed 35 percent of the food distribution in the Darfur region and the United Nations claim that 40 percent of the aid workers in Darfur were affected by this decision.

Current UN estimates say that 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million displaced through a combination of drought, starvation and war in Darfur since 2003. It also claims that current explosions of aid agencies put over one million lives at risk.

The Sudanese government has condemned the kidnapping as “unacceptable” and an “act of lawlessness” but Bashir has threatened to kick more aid agencies out if they fail to comply with Sudanese law.

China, Russia, and many African and Arab nations have asked the ICC to delay its prosecution of Bashir, warning that this arrest warrant may greatly damage the peace efforts in Darfur. France, the UK and the US continue to push the ICC for Bashir’s prosecution.

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