Sudan Rebels Abduct U.S. Man, 18 African Personnel
Rebels in Darfur on Sunday kidnapped 18 African Union personnel and an American, U.S. and African officials said. Some of the hostages were later released.
The abductions near Sudan’s western border with Chad came a day after two African Union troops were killed by another rebel group -- the first fatalities suffered by the pan-African body since it first deployed peacekeepers to Darfur in April 2004.
The African Union condemned the rebel killings and kidnappings, describing them as violations of a shaky cease-fire aimed at ending the Darfur conflict that started in 2003 and has claimed the lives of more than 180,000 people
The 18 African Union personnel and one American were taken hostage by a faction of the Justice and Equality Movement, one of two main Darfur rebel groups, said an African Union official who declined to be named. It was unclear whether the American was among those released or what his role was, but he may have been a monitor working with the African Union, said Elizabeth Lukasavich, a spokeswoman for USAID in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
Americans have been providing logistical support to the peacekeeping mission.
The other hostages included military observers and civilian police, the African official said.
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