(CNN) -- Two Russian pilots working for a Sudanese aviation company have been abducted in the Darfur region, officials said Monday.
The pilots were abducted Sunday in Nyala, the capital of the southern Darfur region, said Chris Cycmanick, spokesman for the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur.
Twelve people have been abducted in Darfur this year, Cycmanick said.
Among them, three are being held hostage, "including one American woman who has been held for more than 100 days, and the two Russian pilots just taken".
The mission had six of its personnel taken hostage this year, but all were safely released, Cycmanick said.
The United Nations has extended its mission in Darfur for another year, despite a report released at the end of July that painted a grim picture of the security situation there. It found that violence in the region has increased over the previous year.
May 2010 was the deadliest month in Darfur since the U.N. mission deployed there in 2007.
According to U.N. statistics, as many as 300,000 people are believed to have died and at least 2.5 million displaced from their homes in Darfur since fighting broke out between the government, the government-allied Janjaweed militia and other armed rebel groups in 2003. CNN
