(RTTNews) - Unidentified gunmen have abducted a French employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Sudan's restive Darfur region, the charity said Thursday.

The ICRC identified the abducted employee as Gauthier Lefevre, and said in a statement that the Frenchman was seized when he was returning to Al-Geneina, the capital of the West Darfur state, after a trip to the "north of the town to help local communities upgrade their water supply systems."

"The ICRC is calling for the rapid and unconditional release of its kidnapped staff member," the statement said. The international charity said it "has no indication of who the abductors might be or of their motives."

International aid workers are often targeted by militias and bandits operating in the region. The latest abduction follows the release of two workers of the Irish aid group GOAL last Sunday after 100 days in captivity. Two employees of the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur remain in the custody of their abductors after being kidnapped in August.

Darfur has witnessed a wave of kidnappings of foreign aid workers in the past year, ever since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on 4th March for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur, marking the first such action against a sitting head of state.

Following the ICC indictment, Bashir expelled some 13 international aid agencies from the country, accusing them of passing on "false and fabricated information" about Darfur to the ICC. Though he later allowed some of the expelled aid agencies back into the country, the humanitarian situation in Darfur still remains pathetic.

The UN says that the expulsions of the international aid groups from Darfur has deprived the nearly three million displaced people in the region of the much needed food aid, health care and access to proper drinking water.

According to UN estimates, about 300,000 people have been killed and some 2.5 million displaced after ethnic Africans in Darfur took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in 2003 to fight discrimination.