French soldier missing in Sudan after border confrontation

Paris: European peacekeeping forces in Chad have reported one French soldier missing, and another wounded in a border confrontation in Sudan on Monday, the French Defense Ministry said.

The EUFOR soldier went missing after his light vehicle strayed from Chadian territory into Sudan mistakenly. The second soldier in the vehicle was wounded but rescued. He said their vehicle has been destroyed.

An attempted recovery "was met with hostile fire," an official said.

It is yet unknown who fired on the soldiers.

EUFOR, the force deployed in aid of Darfur refugees, has suffered its first serious incident.

It currently has 600 deployed soldiers, and is in the process of mounting a peacekeeping force to protect refugees from Darfur, who have filtered into Chad from conflict ridden Sudan.