Sudan Rebels Free Chinese Workers, Red Cross Says

NAIROBI, Kenya — Sudanese rebels released more than two dozen Chinese construction workers who were abducted late last month, Sudanese and Red Cross officials announced Tuesday.

The Sudanese government implied that the newly independent nation of South Sudan helped gain the release of the 29 Chinese workers, who had been captured by rebels operating on the contested Sudan-South Sudan border.

“The government of China asked the government of South Sudan to intervene with the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement-North to secure the release of the hostages,” said El-Obeid El-Murrawah, a spokesman for the Sudanese Foreign Ministry.

The Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement-North is a rebel group fighting in Sudan, and it has longstanding links to the South Sudanese government. China is a steadfast supporter of Sudan and South Sudan, which gained independence in July after decades of civil war with the north, and Chinese officials have been trying to mediate between the two Sudans. The two nations have recently been deadlocked over how to share oil profits.

Officials with the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a short statement on Tuesday saying that the rebels had released the Chinese workers and that the workers were transferred from a rebel-held area in Sudan to Nairobi with the Red Cross’s help.

“The I.C.R.C. assisted in this operation on humanitarian grounds, after all the parties concerned accepted its offer to serve as a neutral intermediary,” said Christoph Luedi, the head of the Red Cross delegation in Nairobi.

But the Red Cross “did not take part in the negotiations that led to the release,” the statement said.

Chinese officials also said Tuesday that one of the missing workers was found dead. Apparently, the worker was part of a group of workmen who escaped or tried to escape from the rebels.

The workers were kidnapped Jan. 28 in South Kordofan State, a war-torn corner of Sudan where rebels have been fighting the central government, claiming that they are marginalized and discriminated against. The Chinese state news media said the workers were building a road to connect two remote areas. But Western human rights groups said the Sudanese military was rapidly constructing roads in that same area as part of a planned offensive.