Cairo announced on Thursday that Egyptians kidnapped by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia in Sudan have been freed in coordination with local authorities.
Egypt’s official news agency reported that “relevant Egyptian agencies, in coordination with their Sudanese counterparts, have managed to free Egyptians kidnapped by the RSF militia.”
The agency added that “the operation to free the Egyptians came based on directives from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to take all necessary measures for their recovery.”
It continued: “The kidnapped Egyptians were transferred from conflict areas in central Khartoum to Port Sudan city (west), and returned safely to Egypt.”
Al-Qahera News channel posted images on X platform showing warm receptions between some of those freed and their families.
While neither the agency nor the channel mentioned the number of those freed, local media reports stated they were 7 Egyptians who had been kidnapped since 2023, about two months after the war broke out in Sudan.
The Sudanese army and RSF forces have been at war since April 2023, resulting in over 20,000 deaths and about 15 million displaced persons and refugees, according to the UN and local authorities. A study by American universities estimated the death toll at around 130,000.
As of 12:15 GMT, neither Khartoum nor the RSF had commented on Cairo’s announcement.
Egypt supports the official authorities in its southern neighbor, led by Transitional Council President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and calls on RSF forces to end the war against the Sudanese state.
