ICRC organizes transfer of released Chinese hostages in Sudan

GENEVA, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday it had arranged the transfer of 29 Chinese workers kidnapped last month in Sudan to Kenya's capital Nairobi.

Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed Tuesday evening that the 29 Chinese workers kidnapped last month by Sudanese anti-government forces have been released and arrived in Nairobi safe and sound.

The ICRC "assisted in this operation on humanitarian grounds, after all the parties concerned accepted its offer to serve as a neutral intermediary," the organization said in a news release.

The Chinese nationals traveled on board an ICRC aircraft from South Kordofan, Sudan, to Nairobi, where the ICRC placed them in the care of representatives of the Chinese embassy.

The Chinese workers were held on Jan. 28, when a group of gunmen belonging to the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) north sector attacked their camp of a Chinese company operating at a road construction site near Sudan's Al-Abbasiya Tagali Town in the volatile South Kordofan State.

The release came after a stream of intensive rescue efforts carried out by the Chinese government in collaboration with the Sudanese government, the ICRC and other parties.