Joint Sudanese-Chadian forces were searching along the border Wednesday for a Chinese worker kidnapped in Chad, the Sudanese army and a Chinese diplomat said.

Citing Yang Guangyu, China's ambassador to Chad, the Xinhua News Agency reported that a worker from the Chinese construction company CGCOC was kidnapped while he was on his way to a construction site in Iriba, in northern Chad, close to the boarder with Sudan.

"The CGCOC lost contact with the worker in June. At first they thought it was a dead mobile signal, but later they confirmed the worker was kidnapped," Yang told the agency, adding that the Chinese embassy to Chad is working closely with Chadian authorities to free the worker.

According to Reuters, another Chinese diplomat in N'Djamena confirmed that there were attempts by the Chadian army to rescue the hostage.

"We are waiting for the results of the search to determine exactly where he (the hostage) is," al-Sawarmi Khaled, Sudan's army spokesman, told Reuters.

When contacted by the Global Times, an official from China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said relevant parties were studying the incident, without offering further details.

According to AFP, Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno, who had been on vacation in the Ennedi region since early August, has ordered the security forces to hunt for the kidnappers and to "seize their families' goods and livestock."

Criminals work along the long and porous border to kidnap foreign workers for ransom in the remote triangle between Chad, Sudan and the Central African Republic, Reuters reported, adding that hostages usually are held in the war-torn Sudanese Darfur region.

There had been at least 10 abductions of foreign workers for ransom since March 2009. All have been released safely.

In October, the Justice and Equality Movement, a Sudanese rebel group, kidnapped nine Chinese nationals working for the China National Petroleum Corporation. Five of the hostages died in the ensuing rescue operation.

In March, the Sudanese government executed two kidnappers who were responsible for the death of two Chinese hostages in 2004.

Reuters said the kidnappers are mostly young men from Arab tribes demanding money and development for their areas from the government.

The joint Chadian-Sudanese border forces were formed this year to stop Darfur rebels traversing the frontier in search of supplies.

Agencies - Global Times