Sudan's Darfur rebels 'seize' 49 Unamid peacekeepers

Rebels in Sudan's Darfur province claim they have seized 49 African peacekeepers and three suspected Sudanese security agents.

Rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) accuse the peacekeepers of entering rebel-held territory without permission.

Most of those seized are Senegalese troops with the joint UN-African Union peace mission (Unamid), the rebels say.

Two million people are in refugee camps after nine years of conflict in Darfur.

However, the fighting has largely died down in recent years.

A Unamid spokesperson told the BBC that there were "ongoing negotiations" to resolve a "situation" but did not confirm that any peacekeepers had been captured.

Jem spokesman Gibreel Adam Bilal said that soldiers from Ghana, Rwanda and Yemen had been seized, along with the Senegalese.

"If it is true that Unamid works with Sudan security agents, then we will ask the UN to fire the head of the Unamid force," he told Reuters news agency.

The BBC's James Copnall in Khartoum says relations between Jem and the peacekeeping force have not been particularly good recently.

The UN estimates that more than 300,000 people have died in Darfur, mostly from disease, since rebels took up arms in 2003.

The government in Khartoum puts the figure at about 12,000 deaths, and says the number of casualties has been exaggerated for political reasons.