The Egyptian army said on Thursday that three flights carrying its troops that were captured by Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces last week have returned to Cairo from Sudan.
The announcement confirmed an earlier statement by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) that 177 Egyptian Air Force troops were airlifted back to Egypt.
The army also said that other Egyptian troops who were still in Sudan had reached Egypt’s embassy in Khartoum with the assistance of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had earlier said it had handed over 27 Egyptian soldiers in its custody to the Red Cross on Thursday morning.
Fierce fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF has been ongoing across Sudan, including the capital Khartoum, since Saturday, with two new attempts at a ceasefire failing on Wednesday.
The RSF detained the soldiers over the weekend after they stormed the Merowe airbase, in northern Sudan, where they were reportedly participating in joint military exercises between Sudan and Egypt.
The RSF statement did not provide any details on the circumstances surrounding the handover or the detention of the Egyptian soldiers, but said the ICRC had been involved in the process of their release.
ICRC has not confirmed its involvement in the swap yet.
The RSF released a video on Saturday showing a number of Egyptian troops that it claimed had “surrendered” to its forces when it stormed the Merowe airport during the ongoing hostilities.
The footage showed several men wearing military-style clothing, sitting on the ground and speaking with members of the RSF in an Egyptian Arabic dialect.
On Wednesday, the RSF said it moved the captured soldiers to Khartoum.
The paramilitary force also released a video on Saturday claiming it had captured the strategic Merowe air base, located around 186 miles north of Khartoum. The footage showed a number of Egyptian MiG-29M/M2 Fulcrum fighter jets that were used in joint Sudanese-Egyptian drills in 2020. (MEE)
