Geneva - A French staff member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been kidnapped by unknown armed men in Chad, the humanitarian organization said in Geneva on Tuesday.

Laurent Maurice, an agronomist, was taken by the group at gunpoint in the village of Kawa near the border with Sudan on Monday night, the ICRC said.

Maurice had been evaluating the most recent harvest in the area and planned, along with his five local colleagues, to spend the night in Kawa, where the ICRC helps to run a healthcare centre.

The ICRC said its work in the east of the Central African country would temporarily be suspended.

The kidnapping is the second in the region in a month. Another French ICRC staff member was kidnapped in eastern Darfur in Sudan on October 22. The organization has no information about his whereabouts. (dpa)