AFP reported on Monday that the kidnapped aid workers included two Nepalese, and a Sudanese national working for UNHCR.

UNHCR officials were not immediately available for comment, but its spokesperson in Khartoum said by text message that a meeting was underway to discuss the “urgent incident”.

Bloody violence swept across Darfur after ethnic minority groups launched an insurgency against Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir’s Arab-dominated government in 2003, leading to a bloody crackdown by Khartoum.

The UN reports that at least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in Darfur following the insurgency and subsequent crackdown.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes and genocide charges related to Darfur.

However, the Sudanese president denies the allegations, claiming that the war in Darfur is over and has repeatedly called for UN peacekeepers to leave the territory.

ANA