Darfur rebels let go five Turks in Sudan

ANKARA

Five Turks that were abducted in September in Sudan have been released, the Foreign Ministry has said.

The five Turks, who were working for a private Turkish company, were kidnapped Sept. 9, 2011, in the north of Darfur as they headed to Chad to open water wells in the central African country, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement Feb. 2. The ministry said the Turks were in good health and would be transported via Khartoum to Turkey.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu spoke on the phone to the Turkish nationals. “The ICRC took no part in the negotiations... Its role consisted in serving as a liaison between the parties and in helping with transport arrangements,” Aleksandra Matijevic Mosimann of the ICRC told AFP. Seperately, the Turkish Red Crescent has sent 5.8 million kilograms of humanitarian aid to Somalia, Anatolia news agency reported. A report prepared by the organization revealed Turkey has so far dispatched 11 consignments of aid to Somalia, eight via airway and three via sea. Meanwhile, the U.N. said conditions in Somalia have improved enough to downgrade the country’s famine, AP reported.