Rebels kidnap passengers in Sudan’s Darfur region: report

KHARTOUM, May 1 (AFP) — Armed rebels have kidnapped several passengers from a bus in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region, the Sudanese Media Center reported Saturday.

It said the bus was travelling from Zalinje in southern Darfur to Al-Fashir in the north when the armed men stopped it at gunpoint and forced passengers from the Khartoum region to get off.

The gunmen took their captives away and let the other passengers continue their journey, the centre reported.

The family of one of the captives, a student at Zalinje University, wrote to Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail to demand action to secure his release.

Darfur has been ravaged for more than a year by fighting between government-backed militias and two rebel movements, the Sudan Liberation Movement and Justice and Equity Movement.

About 10,000 people have died and up to a million others have been displaced in the conflict.