Four aid workers with the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) who were kidnapped in Sudan's Darfur region were released and are safe, a Sudanese government official said on Saturday. "It is confirmed," Ali Youssef Ahmed, head of protocol at the foreign ministry, told Reuters. "They have been released. They are safe. They are all right. They are still in Darfur but will be transferred to Khartoum."The workers -- an Italian doctor, a Canadian nurse, French administrator and a Sudanese staffer -- were kidnapped on Wednesday in Saraf Umra, in North Darfur.
Armed men seized the staff from the Belgian arm of MSF from their base in north Darfur on Wednesday, sending shockwaves through the region's humanitarian community.
According to a source close to the dealings with the kidnappers, the freed aid workers have reached the main Darfur city of El-Fasher. "They will be taken to Khartoum later in the day or on Sunday," Yussef said.
The abductions came at a time of rising tension in Sudan, following the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to face charges of orchestrating war crimes in Darfur.
Sudan expelled 13 international aid groups from the north of the country after the warrant was issued, accusing them of passing information to the court, an accusation the groups deny. MSF's Dutch and French arms were ordered to leave but its Belgian operation was not expelled. Aid groups have said they have faced growing antagonism in Darfur since the arrest warrant was issued.