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 / Updated By Rima Abdelkader 
  
 An American was abducted while working as a United Nations official in central Africa, his father told NBC News on Tuesday. 
  
 Michael Sharp, 34, was among a team traveling by motorcycle through the Democratic Republic of Congo when they were kidnapped by "an unidentified militia group," according to his dad, John. 
  
 Michael Sharp Courtesy John Sharp 
  
 Officials confirmed Monday that the team had disappeared in the country's Kasai Central province — although it was unclear when exactly the incident took place. 
  
 "Sadly, it is true," John Sharp told NBC News by phone. "At one point [during the journey], they were surprised, confronted and taken." 
  
 Michael Sharp was abducted along with a Swedish U.N. worker named Zahida Katalan, three local drivers and a translator, Congo's government and a U.N. official told The Associated Press. 
  
 The kidnap victim's father, who is a 65-year-old professor at Hesston College in Kansas, said he had been given the same information. 
  
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 John Sharp said his son was working as a coordinator with the United Nations Group of Experts for the Democratic Republic of Congo. 
  
 "He and a colleague, another member of a group of experts, and four Congolese people were together," he said. "Three were drivers, one a translator and they were going on a mission, we don’t know what that mission was." 
  
 A map of showing Kasai Central province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Google Maps 
  
 The country is home to multiple militias competing for stakes this vast nation's rich mineral resources. 
  
 The U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa said in a statement that it was aware of the reports of a missing U.S. citizen, and added that the State Department said it was monitoring the situation, the AP reported. 
  
 Charles Bambara, spokesman for the U.N. mission in the country known as MONUSCO, told the news agency that two experts from the mission have disappeared in the country. 
  
 "The United Nations and MONUSCO are doing all that is possible at this moment to locate the two experts," he said. ||||| HESSTON — A man with Hesston ties has been kidnapped in the Congo, where he has spent the past several years working for the peaceful resolution of conflict. 
  
 Michael Sharp, the son of Hesston professor John Sharp and medical worker Michele Miller Sharp, was one of two United Nations officials, one American and one Swedish, has been kidnapped along with four Congolese in the country's Kasai Central province. The Congo's government announced the kidnappings Monday. 
  
 Miller Sharp told The Kansan Tuesday morning she did not know if her son was alive, but she hopes for a peaceful resolution to the situation. 
  
 “My concern is that all means will be used if he and the others are still alive, that they will work at peaceful means to address this problem if they are still alive,” Miler Sharp said. “It would be very ironic for all the things that (Michael) has worked for in his young life if this were to end in violent means. It would be so contrary to how he has worked.” 
  
 For several years Sharp operated with a home base in Hesston, though for the past few months he has home based from Albuquerque, New Mexico. 
  
 Sharp and Zahida Katalan of Sweden were abducted with three Congolese drivers and a translator while traveling by motorcycle through the region, government spokesman Lambert Mende said. 
  
 It was not clear when the kidnapping occurred on a bridge near the village of Ngombe, Mende said, adding that the kidnappers have not yet been identified. 
  
 Judicial authorities in the province have opened an investigation and are working with the U.N. mission in Congo to free the people held. 
  
 Congo is home to multiple militias competing for stakes in the vast Central African nation's rich mineral resources. 
  
 Sharp was working with those militias. First entering the region as a mission worker for Mennonite Central Committee, Sharp helped negotiate the release of child soldiers during a three-year term with MCC. After that term, he joined the United Nations team and worked with the generals of the militias. 
  
 “He saw that as a peaceful means,” Miller Sharp said. “It was his success with MCC that attracted the U.N. to him. … He began to build relationships and met with several militia generals, and built a trust with them over the years.” 
  
 Miller Sharp said her son and his team were due back in New York shortly to write reports, and his second 18-month term with the U.N. was nearly over when the kidnapping occurred. 
  
 A 34-year-old graduate of Eastern Mennonite University, Michael Sharp entered voluntary service after college. His first service was in Germany, assisting with military counseling and support. He finished a graduate degree in International Relations and Peace Studies. 
  
 He later went into missions with MCC before joining the U.N. He served as Eastern DR Congo program coordinator for MCC from 2012 to 2015. 
  
 “He is gifted in languages,” Miler Sharp said. “He is gifted in, in a low-key way, building relationships. He cares enough to understand the history of conflict. He understands the cultures and always educates himself fully before he becomes involved with people. It is a very big challenge for him, but he strives to understand culture … He works to build trusting relationships and that takes time. You do not do that overnight. It is in those trusting relationships that you are able to facilitate change.” 
  
 Charles Bambara, spokesman for the U.N. mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, confirmed with the Associated Press that two experts from the mission have disappeared in the country — but would not comment further. 
  
 "The United Nations and MONUSCO are doing all that is possible at this moment to locate the two experts," he said. 
  
 The U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa said in a statement that it was aware of the reports of a missing U.S. citizen. 
  
 "Out of respect for the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment," it said, referring questions to the U.N. press office. 
  
 The U.S. Department of State was monitoring the situation, according to a statement sent by the embassy. 
  
 "The U.S. Department of State has no higher priority than the protection of U.S. citizens overseas. When a U.S. citizen is missing, we work closely with local authorities and cooperate fully in their search efforts," the statement said. 
  
 Hesston College issued the following statement in support of the Sharp family: 
  
 "The Hesston College community is heavy-hearted at the news of the kidnapping of Michael J. (MJ) Sharp and five others while on a peacekeeping mission with the U.N. in the Democratic Republic of Congo. MJ is the son of Hesston College history and Bible instructor, John Sharp. Our prayers are with John, Michele and their family as they await more news in this uncertain time, and especially with MJ, his colleagues and those seeking their safe return." 
  
 — The Associated Press contributed to this report ||||| Two United Nations workers from peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been kidnapped by unknown assailants in the central Kasai region. 
  
 The government of DRC said in a statement one of the victims was Michael Sharp, an American, and the other Zaida Catalan, a Swede. The UN lists Catalan as Chilean, however. 
  
 They had "fallen into the hands of negative forces not yet identified" near the village of Ngombe along with four Congolese nationals, including three motorcycle-taxi drivers and an interpreter, it said. 
  
 Charles-Antoine Bambara, spokesman for the MONUSCO peacekeeping mission, said on Monday the two went missing on Sunday. 
  
 Sharp and Catalan were among a UN panel of experts investigating conflicts that have simmered in DRC since the mid-1990s, when a civil war spawned dozens of armed groups and drew in half a dozen neighbouring armies. 
  
 Congolese and UN officials said efforts to locate the victims were under way. 
  
 WATCH: Can another civil war be avoided in DRC? (24:59) 
  
 An Uruguayan peacekeeper was shot and wounded last week in the same region, which has been wracked by a rebellion since September. 
  
 The uprising erupted after government forces in August killed a tribal chief and militia leader, Kamwina Nsapu, who had rebelled against President Joseph Kabila. 
  
 The violence has since spilled over to the neighbouring provinces of Kasai-Oriental and Lomami, leaving at least 400 people dead. 
  
 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said last week that three mass graves had been discovered in the area where clashes are taking place. 
  
 The UN has almost 19,000 troops deployed in DRC, its largest and costliest peacekeeping mission. About 100 of those soldiers were recently dispatched to Kasai. 
  
 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday asked the Security Council to send an extra 320 UN police to the country after a deal to end a dispute over the presidential election stalled. |||||Summary:

– A 34-year-old American UN worker was abducted Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is currently missing, Al Jazeera reports. According to NBC News, Michael Sharp was traveling through the African nation on motorcycle with a group that included another UN worker, three local drivers, and a translator. All six were taken by what the Congolese government is calling "negative forces not yet identified." Multiple militias operate in the area. "They were surprised, confronted, and taken," Sharp's father says. Sharp and Zaida Catalan were part of a group of UN experts studying conflicts between militias and armed groups. A spokesperson says the UN is "doing all that is possible" to find them. Sharp has been working in the DRC for about six years. As a Mennonite mission worker, he negotiated the release of child soldiers. After joining the UN, he worked with the generals of local militias—his mother, Michelle Miller Sharp, tells The Kansan he "built a trust" with them. Miller Sharp says she doesn't know if her son is alive, but she wants to know that everything is being done to rescue him and the others if he is. "It would be very ironic for all the things that (Michael) has worked for in his young life if this were to end in violent means," she says. The State Department says it's keeping an eye on the situation.