Two Russian UN contractors kidnapped in Sudan's Darfur

Two Russian men working as UN contractors in Sudan have been kidnapped in the country's Darfur region, officials said today.
The men were employees of UTair, one of Russia's largest airlines, and were in Sudan on a contract for the UN mission in the country, UNAMID, the company said in a statement.
The pair were seized on January 29 when armed gunmen in six cars blocked a UNAMID minibus in the town of Zalingei, UTair said in a statement.
"The passengers were forced to leave the minibus and were taken away in an unknown direction," it said. "So far there have been no demands from the kidnappers."

The statement did not specify the men's jobs, but Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said that one was a UTair manager and the other was a mechanic.
A spokesman for Russia's embassy in Sudan told AFP earlier that the two men were pilots.

UTair said that it was working alongside UNAMID and diplomats and making "every effort" to find the men.
The UN mission was set up in 2007 to protect civilians and secure aid to Darfur, which has been wracked by conflict since 2003 when ethnic insurgents rebelled against the government complaining of marginalisation.
Relations between Khartoum and UNAMID have been strained since the mission tried to investigate reports that Sudanese soldiers raped 200 women in the village of Tabit in October.

On Sunday, six Bulgarian contractors working for the UN World Food Programme were freed after being held for a week by rebels in the southern Sudanese region of South Kordofan.