Mubarak Ardol, spokesman for the SPLM-North negotiating team in Addis Ababa, has announced that the movement's leadership has decided to free 20 war prisoners of the Sudan Armed Forces.

The prisoners who were captured in Blue Nile and South Kordofan states are being released as a sign of goodwill and to show SPLM-N’s desire for dialogue.

Ardol said in a statement to Radio Tamazuj that they received yesterday a copy of an order from the SPLM-N leadership, following consultations among the SPLM-N secretary-general, deputy chairman, army chief of general staff and other commanders.

The release of 20 Sudanese war prisoners is an affirmation of goodwill and recognition of the humanitarian situation of the prisoners, coming ahead of the start of dialogue with the Sudanese government, he said.

“The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) may send a plane from Addis Ababa for the transfer of twenty (20) of the prisoners who are in our detention in Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains,” Ardol said, describing a possible means of handover of the prisoners. 

File photo: Sudanese army troops in Blue Nile State