REUTERS - Armed raiders kidnapped two foreign civilians working with the peacekeeping force for Darfur in a town in the western part of the remote region of Sudan, a spokesman said on Saturday.
 
"An abduction took place this morning in Zalingei. Two of our international staff were taken," UNAMID spokesman Noureddine Mezni told Reuters.
 
He did not give the nationalities of the kidnap victims, a man and a woman working for the joint United Nations/African Union force, as their families had not yet been informed.
 
"They were abducted by armed men from their residence in Zalingei. The incident took place in the early hours of this morning, at 4:30 a.m.," he said.
 
The kidnapping comes days after the departing commander of the force, Martin Luther Agwai, told reporters that Darfur was no longer in a state of war.
 
It is the latest in a string of aid worker kidnappings, previously unheard of in Darfur, since March. Two women from Ireland's GOAL remain in captivity after being snatched in early July.
 
Another aid worker is missing after a raid just a few miles over Darfur's border in neighbouring Chad early this month.
 
Mezni said the kidnappers made contact with UNAMID soon after the kidnap.
 
"At 8.30 a.m. contact was established with the group responsible for the abduction," he said. "They told us of their willingness to talk to UNAMID."
 
Zalingei, some 100 kms from the Chadian border, is the birthplace of some of Darfur's best-known rebels, including Sudan Liberation Army founder Abdel Wahed Mohamed Ahmed al-Nur, and is a hotbed of anti-government sentiment.