Sudan announces names of 112 Sudanese POWs to be released

KHARTOUM, March 16 (AFP) — A Sudanese government body said on Wednesday it had made arrangements for the return of 112 government soldiers held as prisoners of war by the southern rebel movement during the civil war in southern Sudan.

Ahmed al-Mufti, chairman of the Committee for Eradication of the Abduction of Women and Children (CEAWAC), said the POWs would be released within two weeks.

“CEAWAC has made the necessary arrangements for the return of the POWs included in the list in a period that will not exceed two weeks from now,” Mufti told reporters.

He congratulated the prisoners’ families and thanked the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) for the release.

The government in Khartoum and the southern Sudanese rebels signed a peace agreement in January, ending more than two decades of civil war that claimed more than 1.5 million lives.

The 112 POWs are the first of some expected 700 to be released.