Two aid workers with German group kidnapped in Darfur: UN

Two Russian pilots operating in Sudan's western region of Darfur have been abducted by unknown gunmen, an army spokesman said on Monday.The pair were seized in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, on Sunday, spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad told AFP."Two Russian pilots were kidnapped by a small armed group in a section of Nyala," Saad said. "We have closed off all access routes (around Nyala)."The kidnappings mark the second abduction of foreigners in Darfur this month.

Two civilian staffers working for the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur were freed on Sunday after 107 days in captivity, a UNAMID spokesman told AFP."A short while ago, Sudanese security handed the two UNAMID staffers to the deputy chief of UNAMID Mohammed Yunis. They are both in good health," Nureddine Mezni said.The two, a Nigerian man and a Zimbabwean woman, were kidnapped at gunpoint in Darfur on August 29, in the first abduction targeting the joint force operating in the war-torn Sudanese western region for nearly two years.

Three aid workers, two of them Sudanese nationals and a foreigner, were abducted on Tuesday in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, a UN spokesman told AFP."Two national staffers and one international staffer working for a non-governmental organisation were abducted in South Darfur en route to (the state's capital) Nyala," Samuel Hendricks said.Armed men stopped a convoy of two vehicles in which nine employees of the NGO had been travelling, he said.

The two police advisers deployed with the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) who were kidnapped in Sudan's Darfur region are both Jordanians, the government spokesman said on Sunday.The two officers were seized on Saturday in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, UNAMID had said in an earlier statement, without giving the nationalities of the two men.

The two police advisers deployed with the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) who were kidnapped in Sudan's Darfur region are both Jordanians, the government spokesman said on Sunday.The two officers were seized on Saturday in Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, UNAMID had said in an earlier statement, without giving the nationalities of the two men.

Gunmen killed a peacekeeper in the western Sudanese region of Darfur after they ambushed a UN convoy and abducted him along with two colleagues, the United Nations said Wednesday."One UNAMID peacekeeper has been killed after an attack by a group of armed men on a mission patrol... near Kutum, North Darfur," the UN mission said in a statement.Following the ambush on Tuesday, peacekeepers exchanged fire with the attackers, one of whom was killed, but the gunmen seized a UNAMID vehicle and abducted three mission staff.

Gunfire broke out and ambulance sirens wailed as hundreds of angry victims of a failed pyramid scheme protested in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region on Sunday, as a witness said police had opened fire."We have heard sporadic gunfire but it is not fighting," Kemal Saiki, an official of the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), told AFP of the protest in El-Fasher, capital of North Darfur state."We have instructed our personnel to stay at their workplace," said the official of the force, which is based in El-Fasher.

Four South African peacekeepers with the joint UN-African Union mission who had been held in Darfur since April 11 were freed on Monday, their captors told AFP."We released them half an hour ago," said Ibrahim al-Dukki, of the People's Democratic Struggle Movement."We dropped them off in the Niertiti area," in west Darfur, Dukki said, adding that no ransom had been paid."They are in good health," he said.The four UNAMID police -- two men and two women -- were abducted on April 11 as they left their team site just outside Nyala, UNAMID said.