Mumbai: It was sheer spunk and presence of mind that helped Mumbai youth Mohammed Adeeb Shaikh escape from the clutches of kidnappers in Sudan before reaching home here Friday evening. He was on the run for nearly the past fortnight, braving wild animals, reptiles in the dense jungles and surviving on his urine.

Adeeb, who was employed with a Sudan oil company, was kidnapped May 13 along with three other Indians. He was in captivity for 18 days before he and another Indian colleague made a dash for freedom.

"I used my school knowledge of geography and astronomy to escape from the kidnappers, drank my own urine to combat fatigue and thirst in the blistering heat," Adeeb told IANS Friday evening.

Recounting his ordeal, surrounded by his joyful family, Adeeb said that he and three other Indian colleagues and their Sudanese driver were kidnapped May 13, around 8 p.m. near the Neem Oilfield when they were heading for home at Heglig, an hour's drive away.

The 11 kidnappers belonged to local tribal groups and comprised youth in their teens or early 20s. They were armed with sophisticated weapons and carried rocket launchers, Adeeb said.

They were dumped into a secret hideout in the deep forests, several kilometres to the west of Khartoum.

During the 18 days they spent in captivity, they were offered food - mainly roasted flesh of jungle animals killed by the kidnappers, which they refused. “After five days, when we had no option, we ate it, and whatever it was, tasted horrible,” he said with a shudder.

The kidnappers informed them that they had demanded a ransom of Sudanese Pound 200 million ($100,000). Later, he learnt in Khartoum, that the figure demanded was Sudanese Pound one billion ($500,000).

Following an outcry in Sudan, pressure building from the Indian government and other factors, the military raided the forest and zeroed in on the kidnappers' hideout.

Panicking, the kidnappers divided themselves into two groups, and even divided the hostages. The day was May 30, Adeeb said.

There was a bloody mini-war in the dense forests between the kidnappers and the military, with rocket launchers fired freely, destroying at least one army truck, Adeeb said, recalling the horror.

Unable to withstand the army assault, the two groups started running in two different directions into the forest. While Adeeb and Biplav Bishwas, from Kolkata, were dragged with one group, their colleagues, Kuljit Singh of Amritsar and P.K. Abhilash of Kerala, along with their Sudanese driver Mohammed Atties (35) were forced to go with the other group.

After running for nearly five hours, at one point in the jungle, Adeeb and Bishwas suddenly found themselves alone. Grabbing the chance, they both fled from the kidnappers.

"We kept running for the next four days and nights, barely resting to catch our breaths and avoiding all kinds of wild creatures, reptiles, insects and sharp stones and thorns," Adeeb said.