Society - Sudan has released five Prisoners of War (POWs) from South Sudan and handed them to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which flew them to Juba, capital of South Sudan, Monday.
“An aircraft belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) arrived in Juba today with five South Sudanese ex-prisoners of war aboard. They had been released by the Sudanese government earlier in the day. An ICRC delegate accompanied the five men to Juba, where they were handed over to South Sudanese authorities,” ICRC said in a statement.
The statement, received by PANA in Khartoum, said Sudanese authorities approached the ICRC to facilitate the return home of the POWs and that the ICRC agreed to serve as a neutral intermediary between the Sudanese and South Sudanese authorities.
'We are glad that these five men were able to return to their country,' Jean-Christophe Sandoz, head of the ICRC delegation in Sudan, was quoted to have said, adding that “We will offer logistical support for such repatriations in future as well, should there be a need for it.'
In April 2012, the ICRC helped repatriate 13 Sudanese ex-prisoners of war after the South Sudanese authorities had released them, and in September it helped repatriate 19 South Sudanese prisoners of war released by Sudan.
Pana 11/02/2013