UNITED NATIONS, July 29 (Xinhua) -- A missing Russian pilot was located and safely returned to the UN base in southern Darfur on Thursday after he was reported unaccounted for three days ago, a UN spokesman said here.
"The missing helicopter pilot has been located and safely returned to Nyala in southern Darfur," where the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission, known as UNAMID, is based, Farhan Haq, the UN associate spokesman, told Xinhua. "He has returned to the hands of the UN mission."
The pilot was found in Oum Sader, where he was held for three days before he was released and returned to Nyala, where he was given a medical checkup, he said.
The pilot, identified by Russian media reports in Moscow as Yevgeny Mostovshchikov, flew from Nyala to Oum Sader, about 55 kilometers north of Nyala, on Monday and later went missing, Haq said.
"The pilot was reported missing after his aircraft landed in an undesignated area on July 26 and was met by unidentified hostile elements," said a press release from UNAMID on Thursday. "The assailants robbed and beat up several of the passengers and crew."
The Sudanese army said Tuesday that the helicopter had landed in mud and was initially unable to fly.
The chopper, which belongs to Russian air company UTair, is working in Sudan under contract with the United Nations to serve the UNAMID, which took over the peacekeeping task in Darfur from the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) on Dec. 31, 2008.
The United Nations on Wednesday expressed its deep concern over the helicopter pilot who has been missing for two days in the south of Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.
The passengers and crew -- not including the pilot -- were later taken to a government military camp, and following further contacts with authorities and security officials, returned on Tuesday to Nyala.
