Three Russian pilots were kidnapped in Nyala, capital of the South Darfur State, on Sunday by unidentified gunmen, reported Khartoum Al Ahdath daily on Monday.
The paper quoted an anonymous local official in the South Darfur State as saying that "unidentified men on a Land Cruiser vehicle obstructed a mini-bus that was carrying the
three pilots and kidnapped them at gun point."
"The abductors drove with the kidnapped pilots to a remote area north of Nyala. The security authorities identified the area and presently surrounding the abductors," the anonymous source said according to the paper.
The three Russian pilots were working for the Sudanese Badr Aviation Company, the paper said.
The incident came after a series of abductions against foreigners and humanitarian workers in the Darfur region which has been suffering from a civil war since 2003.
Recently, peacekeepers of the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and other international organizations' personnel have been
subjected to repeated kidnapping incidents, but the Sudanese government has managed to free most
of the kidnapped aid workers. Only one American humanitarian worker was still in custody.