20100817
reuters

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Two Jordanian police officers serving with the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur were freed on Tuesday after three days in captivity, a Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman said.

"With the effort of the concerned agencies and by communication with tribal leaders ... we have been able to release the two Jordanians safely. They are now in their base," spokesman Moawia Osman said.

The Jordanian state news agency Petra said Amman had sent a military aircraft to Darfur in western Sudan to bring Ahmad Qaissi and Nabil al-Kilani back home.

The UNAMID peacekeeping force said the Jordanians were in good health and good spirits.

Their kidnap brought to 19 the number foreign aid workers and members of UNAMID kidnapped in Darfur since March 2009.

Abductions of foreign workers in Sudan's violent west began after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur.

All but one of the hostages have been released. An American woman working for the Samaritan's Purse charity remains in captivity after being taken three months ago.

The kidnappers are generally young men who demand ransoms. Khartoum denies paying but tribal leaders have in the past reported that money has changed hands, which has fuelled the abductions.

Aid workers fear that if Khartoum does not arrest and prosecute the criminals targeting foreigners in Darfur, the abductions will continue.