Khartoum: A civilian with the joint UN-
African Union UNAMID peacekeeping force was kidnapped by gunmen in Sudan`s El Fasher in Darfur as a UN Security Council delegation visited the town, UN officials said.
"A member of the peacekeeping force has been kidnapped in
El Fasher," a UN official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
UNAMID spokesman Kemal Saiki yesterday confirmed to AFP
that an expatriate civilian working for the force had been
abducted at nightfall in El Fasher, historic capital of
Sudan`s troubled western region.
"Four armed men burst into a UNAMID residence building.
Two people inside were tied up and another two were obliged to
follow the gunmen in a UNAMID vehicle.
"As the vehicle was leaving, one UNAMID employee was able
to flee. The other is still missing," Saiki said, adding that
the incident took place in the centre of the town and not on
the UN base where the senior delegation was.
The incident "is not linked to the Security Council
visit," he said.
Earlier, hundreds of supporters of Sudan`s President Omar
al-Bashir gave a hostile reception to UN Security Council
ambassadors in El Fasher, briefly preventing them from leaving
the airport.
Ambassadors from the 15 UN Security Council nations,
including the five permanent powers -- Britain, China, France,
Russia and the United States -- are on a four-day mission to
Sudan to check the troubled preparations for a self-
determination referendum in south Sudan on January 9 and to
visit Darfur.
The Darfur leg of their trip is to raise concerns about
renewed clashes in the region where the United Nations
estimates about 300,000 people have died since 2003. The
Khartoum government puts the death toll at 10,000.
PTI
