Khartoum, Sudan (ANTARA News/AFP) - Rebels in the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan released five Turks who have arrived in the Sudanese capital, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.

"We have transported five Turkish citizens who were freed by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)," Aleksandra Matijevic Mosimann of the ICRC told AFP.

She had no more details, but said the Turks had now reached their country`s embassy in Khartoum.

In a December interview with AFP, the head of the joint African Union-United Nations Mission to Darfur, Ibrahim Gambari, said several Turks had been held for two or three months.

Sudan`s official SUNA news agency said the Turks worked in the water sector for a Turkish company and were taken by JEM on September 8.

The Turks had been hired to dig wells for the Sudan Armed Forces and were captured by JEM near Sudan`s border with Chad, said JEM spokesman Gibril Adam Bilal.

"Through our discussion with the Turkish embassy we gave them to the Red Cross and a representative from Turkey was there," he said. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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