Former Darfur rebel officials on hijacked plane

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) - Three senior members of a former Darfur rebel movement were aboard a Sudanese passenger plane hijacked over the region on Tuesday, a spokesman for the group said.

Mohammed Bashir of the Mina Minnawi faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) said they were an adviser to Minnawi, the movement's land commissioner and one of the architects of the Darfur peace agreement of 2006.

"We had three senior members on the plane, and some other people. They got on and someone hijacked it," he said.

Mina Minnawi was the most influential Darfur rebel leader to sign the peace agreement. Most groups rejected it.

(Reporting by Andrew Heavens, Writing by Jonathan Wright)