The 16 Ugandans released by rebels Wednesday are undergoing treatment in Khartoum and will come back home in a couple of days, a senior Ugandan official said Friday.

In a telephone interview with Xinhua, State Minister for Regional Cooperation Amama Mbabazi said: "They are still being treated in a hospital in Khartoum, but they are coming back very soon."

Reports here said that this was in response to Uganda's release of 72 Sudanese prisoners of war earlier this year.

The Ugandans were abducted by the Khartoum-backed Ugandan rebel group, Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which has been operating in northern Uganda from bases in southern Sudan.

Uganda and Sudan signed a peace accord in Nairobi, Kenya, on December 8 to restore diplomatic ties severed in 1995 and stop supporting each other's rebels.