International peacekeepers seized in Sudan's Darfur

PanARMENIAN.Net - Rebels in Sudan's Darfur region said Monday, Feb 20, they have detained 49 international peacekeepers and three suspected Sudanese intelligence agents for "investigation" after they entered a rebel-held area.

Sudan's military, citing the United Nations, said 58 members of the UN-African Union peacekeeping mission UNAMID were seized.

The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) captured the mostly Senegalese members of UNAMID on Sunday, said rebels' spokesman Gibril Adam Bilal, without specifying the location in the vast Darfur region of western Sudan.

"They came to an area controlled by JEM without permission and without informing JEM," Bilal said.

He said the rebels were holding them to probe why they entered rebel territory, "and to investigate the three Sudanese because we think they are members of Sudan's intelligence and security service".

A UNAMID spokeswoman said "there is a situation ongoing" but could not immediately give details.

The peacekeepers and their equipment were safe, said Bilal. Forty-six of them were from Senegal, including two officers, while there was one each from Yemen, Ghana and Rwanda, AFP reported.