Armed men have abducted three UN refugee agency staffers, including two foreigners, from Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region, a local government official told AFP on Monday. The three workers - one from Sudan and two from Nepal - were kidnapped on Sunday from Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, and were taken to an unknown location, Abdallah Gar al-Nabi, West Darfur government spokesman, said on Monday. “A group of armed men kidnapped yesterday three UNHCR workers, two Nepalese and a Sudanese, from Geneina,” the capital of West Darfur state, state government spokesman Abdelah Mustafa told AFP. “Police are searching for the kidnappers.” UNHCR officials were not immediately available for comment, but its spokesman in Khartoum told AFP by text message that a meeting was underway to discuss the “urgent incident”. READ MORE: Sudan accused of chemical weapons attacks in Darfur

Darfur has been engulfed in a deadly conflict since 2003, when ethnic minority black tribes took up arms against President Omar al-Bashir's government. At least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in Darfur since the conflict began in 2003, according to the UN. Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes and genocide charges related to Darfur, which he denies. Sudan insists that the conflict in Darfur has ended, and that it wants UN peacekeepers who have been deployed in the region the size of France since 2007 to leave.
Three UNHCR workers - one from Sudan and two from Nepal - are kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in Geneina, the capital of the West Darfur state.