SPLM-N rebels prepare to release 20 Sudanese POWs

January 3, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) has started preparations to hand over twenty prisoners of war (POWs) to the Sa’ihoon, a group of former Islamist fighters and members of the paramilitary, Popular Defence Forces, the rebel said on Saturday.

Last week, the SPLM-N said they decided to release the 20 POWs as gesture of goodwill for the Sa’ihoon group which held a series of meetings with the rebels in Addis Ababa over peace and democratic reforms.

Mubarak Ardol, spokesperson of the SPLM-N negotiating team Saturday said that the group’s chairman Malik Agar formed a three-member committee to prepare the transportation of the POWs to Addis Ababa.

“Mubarak Ardol, Suleiman Osman Hamid and Bakri Abel Basit Mandani will head to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to prepare arrangements for transporting the 20 POWs by a plane of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from Blue Nile and South Kordofan states to Addis Ababa,” said Ardol.

The statement added that the committee will perform its activities under the supervision of SPLM-N secretary-general Yasir Arman and continue its contacts with the Sa’ihoon.

The SPLM-N last week formally requested the ICRC to send a plane to Yabus in the Blue Nile state and Kaoda in South Kordofan state.

It is not clear if the Sudanese government will give the ICRC the green light to carry out this humanitarian operation and transport the Sudanese POWs to Addis Ababa.

In January 2012, Khartoum authorised the ICRC to transport Chinese workers from the rebel held areas in South Kordofan to Nairobi.

(ST)