KHARTOUM - Five employees with the Belgian branch of Medicins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), including three international staff, have been kidnapped in Darfur, relief agency officials said Thursday.

"I can confirm the kidnap of three international employees and two local employees," an official with the group told AFP.

"They were kidnapped yesterday (Wednesday) in north Darfur," another official said, adding that the identity of the kidnappers was unknown.

The French and Dutch chapters of MSF were among the groups ordered expelled from Darfur last week after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Beshir for war crimes over the six year-conflict in the region.