One hundred and twenty-five Sudanese prisoners of war under the SPLM-North rebels have been freed with the help of South Sudan, the International Committee of the Red Cross has said.

The ICRC says it transported the form prisoners from two locations in South Sudan to Entebbe in Uganda and finally to Sudan, where they were handed over to Khartoum.

In a statement, it says the operation followed a request by the authorities in Kampala, Khartoum, Juba, and the SPLM-N.

Sudanese government officials have confirmed that the former war prisoners have arrived in Khartoum.

The ICRC says all the detainees were interviewed prior to the repatriation to ensure that they wanted to return to Khartoum.

The humanitarian organization says medical checks were conducted at the same time to confirm their fitness to travel.

The statement says the entire transfer operation took place over 4 days and was concluded on Sunday.

Upon the arrival of the detainees in Khartoum, the ICRC representative in Sudan, Gérard Peytrignet, said the operation has been considered as being the biggest of its kind in the region.

Mr. Peytrignet said: “This was across border operation as they were transferred from South Kordofan and Blue Nile into South Sudan and then airlifted to Sudan via Entebbe in Uganda, where they spent a couple days under the good care of Uganda.”

Meanwhile, the head of the Ugandan delegation which accompanied the detainees, John Itord, commended the efforts of the South Sudanese government and the other regional partners.

“Without the permission and clearance from President Salva Kiir of South Sudan, it wouldn’t have been possible to reach out to your people,” he said

For his part, the Sudanese army force commander, Lt Imad Adawe welcomed the initiative, describing it as a good and blessed action towards achieving peace in Sudan.

He said the Sudanese Armed Forces is committed to the ceasefire with the SPLM-North rebels, announced last January.

“We believe such an initiative can pave the way for the peace,” he added.

Sudan and South Sudan have traded accusation of rebel support for a long time, but they reiterated commitment recently to stop the mutual support to the rebels.

However, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mawien Makol, said he was not aware of the initiative.