Darfur: head of African Union-UN mission urges immediate release of abducted staff

The head of the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission in the strife-torn Sudanese region of Darfur has called for the immediate and unconditional release of two staff members who were abducted early Saturday.

The mission, known as UNAMID, has not released the names or nationalities of the two international civilian staff – one man and one woman.

The two were abducted at gunpoint by four or five armed men from their residence in the West Darfur town of Zalingei at 4:30 a.m. local time and taken to an unknown destination, according to information provided by the mission.

Rodolphe Adada, the Joint Special Representative for Darfur and head of UNAMID, “called for the immediate and unconditional release of the two staff members, urging their abductors to return them unharmed.”

The Security Council established UNAMID in 2007 to try to quell the violence in Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people have been killed and 2.7 million others displaced as a result of conflict pitting rebels against Government forces and allied Janjaweed militiamen since 2003.