Eight aid workers missing

EIGHT Sudanese aid workers have gone missing in rebel-controlled territory in Sudan.

Sudanese officials said the aid workers - three from the UN World Food Programme and five from the Sudanese Red Crescent - had been kidnapped by rebels waging an 18-month insurgency against the government.

In Rome, WFP spokeswoman Caroline Hurford declined to speculate on whether the workers had been kidnapped. The WFP and Red Crescent lost contact with the aid workers on Saturday afternoon. They had driven to Tongragra village to register internally displaced people.