United Nations: The United Nations Mission in Sudanis investigating a police raid on a social gathering in a Darfurtown during which several of its staff members were arrested and beaten.

Local police raided the International Non Governmental Organisation compound inNyala town on Friday and arrested 20 people, including UN and African Unionstaff who had gathered for a function. The UN staffs were subsequently released.

The Missionsaid the UN will officially protest to the Sudanese Government over the arrestsand physical assault.

It expressed concern over the treatment of the arrested staff in violation ofbasic principles of rule of law and due process.

Some of the injuries sustained by the staff members were so serious theyrequired treatment at the UN clinic in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, UNMIS reported.

UNMIS has been stepping up its presence in war-torn Darfur as part of athree-phase process of enhanced support for the AU mission known as AMIS. Underthe plan, AMIS will eventually be replaced by a hybrid UN-AU force comprisingabout 17,000 peacekeepers and 3,000 police officers.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and at least 2 million othersdisplaced from their homes in Darfur since 2003, when Government forces andallied militias began fighting rebel groups seeking greater autonomy for thearid and impoverished region on Sudan'swestern flank.

UN officials have described Darfur as the scene of the world's worsthumanitarian crisis, and recently expressed concern about the potentialspillover of the conflict into neighbouring Chadand the Central African Republic.