Armed men have taken 18 African Union personnel hostage in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
The abductions come a day after two African Union peacekeepers from Nigeria and two civilian contractors were killed in an ambush in the beleaguered region.
Three other soldiers were wounded in yesterday's attack in southern Darfur.
They are the first deaths among some 6,000 African Union troops deployed in Darfur to monitor a truce between pro-government forces and non-Arab rebels.
A civil war in the region since 1993 has left tens of thousands of people dead and some two million homeless.
Last week, the African Union accused Sudanese government forces of still carrying out what appeared to be co-ordinated attacks in Darfur alongside the Janjaweed militia. The allegations have been denied by the Sudanese government.
