Darfur hostages freed

An upsurge of violence in Darfur, where rebels have killed and abducted African Union troops, may force the United Nations to suspend some aid to the west Sudan region, UN chief Kofi Annan warned yesterday.

He called on Sudan's government and rebel movements to take immediate steps to stabilise the situation in the vast desert region and to "engage seriously" in peace talks aimed at finding a political solution to the conflict there.

A breakaway faction of the guerilla Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) kidnapped 38 AU personnel on Sunday, a day after the 53-nation pan-African organisation suffered its first casualties in the arid region, AU officials said.

JEM fighters helped secure the release of the hostages after gun-battles with the kidnappers, one of the freed hostages and JEM commanders said. The splinter group denied it was involved in the kidnappings.

Mr Annan made his remarks at a Geneva news conference early in the day and in a statement issued by a spokesman later.

In the statement, the spokesman said the UN chief "strongly condemns" the killings and abductions and denounced attacks on the AU mission in Darfur as "completely unacceptable."

The Cameroonian leader of the AU team, who was one of the last two hostages still being held yesterday, confirmed that he and his Sudanese translator had been freed after a shootout.

On Saturday, three AU soldiers and two civilian contractors were killed further south after an ambush blamed on Darfur's main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).

"Both rebels and government must understand that, if these incidents continue, it will impede humanitarian assistance and delivery," Mr Annan told the Geneva news conference.