Sudan's RSF handed over 27 Egyptian soldiers to ICRC

CAIRO - Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said on Thursday it had handed over 27 Egyptian soldiers it had been holding to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The RSF had detained the soldiers after storming Merowe airbase in northern Sudan, where they had been part of routine joint military exercises between the two countries.

The Egyptian army said on Thursday that three flights carrying its troops had arrived at a Cairo airbase from Sudan the previous day, confirming an earlier statement by the Sudanese Armed Forces on the return of the soldiers to Egypt.

In a statement, the army also said that other Egyptian troops still in Sudan had reached Egypt's embassy in Khartoum in coordination with the ICRC.

Earlier, Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is battling the Sudanese army, said it had handed over 27 Egyptian soldiers in its custody to the Red Cross on Thursday morning.

The Egyptian troops had been in Sudan to take part in training exercises.