KHARTOUM, Sudan
Two abducted Russian pilots were released late Friday after being held hostage for four months by unknown gunmen in Sudan’s Darfur region, a security official said Saturday.
“The operation to liberate the pilots took place on Friday evening and the pilots were taken on a flight Saturday morning from Darfur to Khartoum,” Lieutenant General Taj al-Ser Othman, a security official from the Sudanese intelligence, said in a press conference in Khartoum.
Also, the Russian envoy in Khartoum said the operation took place without violence or paying a ransom.
Both officials did not provide any details about the operation or the identity of the kidnappers.
On Jan. 29, Ashraf Eissa, spokesman for the joint United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, told Anadolu Agency that two Russian pilots who worked for the mission were kidnapped.
Darfur has been the scene of a ferocious war between the Sudanese government and three rebel movements since 2003.
The war has left 300,000 people dead and displaced around 2.5 million others so far, according to the UN.
