Khartoum: Two French aid workers abducted in the Central African Republic and held for four months were freed in Darfur, the Sudanese region gripped by civil war and a wave of kidnappings.
The two were working for a French charity, Triangle Generation Humanitaire, when they were kidnapped in November 2009 in the Central African Republic, across the border from the western region of Sudan.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said yesterday the pair had been freed and were heading to the Sudanese capital Khartoum. He did not give their names or more details of their release.
"I fully share the happiness of their families and loved ones, and the NGO, with whom the foreign ministry`s crisis centre has been in permanent contact since their abduction," he said in a statement issued in Paris.
A shadowy armed group in Darfur called the Freedom Eagles of Africa said in November it abducted the two and a Red Cross worker, Laurent Maurice, as well as two other aid workers, a Frenchwoman and a Canadian, freed in April.
Maurice was freed last month after 89 days in captivity.
PTI
