AKIPRESS.COM - Ecuadorean police are searching for two newspaper journalists and their driver who were kidnapped near the border with Colombia on Monday, BBC reported.

The three were seized in Esmeraldas province, where dissident members of Colombia's Farc rebel group are active.

Hundreds of former rebels who did not agree with the peace deal the guerrilla group signed with the Colombian government have broken away.

Many of them have joined drug trafficking gangs in the border area.

Interior Minister César Navas said he had information that the three were well and had been taken to neighbouring Colombia. 

He said contact had been made with their kidnappers but gave no details.

He also said the three had passed a military checkpoint and had been warned about the dangers of entering the area, which has seen a recent spike in violence.