Darfur rebels detain, then release two Britons

KHARTOUM, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Darfur rebels detained two Britons who run an aid organisation operating in the western region of Sudan and released them six hours later, U.N. sources in Khartoum said on Sunday.

They said rebels had detained Alistair King-Smith, who is also a British diplomat, and his mother Patricia Parker, on Saturday because they had not been told the pair would be in the region.

They run a charity the sources identified as Kids for Kids.

The Arabic television channel Al Jazeera said rebels had kidnapped two British aid workers in Darfur and the British embassy in Khartoum was negotiating their release.

But a spokeswoman for the British Foreign Office in London said it was not a kidnapping. The pair had stayed with the Sudan Liberation Army overnight because it was too dark for them to travel back to their bases, she added.

“They are now on their way to safety,” she said, adding they had been well treated.