| Armed men took 18 African Union personnel hostage in Sudan's troubled Darfur region yesterday. Jean Baptiste Natama, the acting head of the AU in Sudan, said: "Eighteen personnel including military observers, civilian police, a US representative and a [rebel] Justice and Equality Movement [JEM] representative are held hostage." He said they were being held in the town of Tine, in North Darfur state, close to the border with Chad, but there was no further information about who the kidnappers were or what they wanted. "We are monitoring the situation very closely," he said. The SLA and JEM rebel groups are involved in AU-sponsored peace talks with the Sudanese government in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. But negotiations have faltered after a recent upsurge of violence in Darfur. About 6,000 AU troops are stationed in Darfur to monitor a shaky ceasefire. |