Nigerian police confirmed to Xinhua on Wednesday that former Liberian president Charles Taylor, who disappeared from his residence in the country's southeast one day ago, has been detained.

"Confirmed. But I cannot give you details," Nigerian police spokesman Haz Iwendi said by phone from the capital Abuja.

A top government official who asked not to be named said Taylor, wanted for war crimes by a UN-backed special court in Sierra Leone, was arrested in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.

Source: Xinhua