Two French aid workers held in CAR released

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Two French aid workers kidnapped in the Central African Republic last year were freed in the restive Sudanese region of Darfur on Sunday, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the French foreign minister said.

The two, who were not named, were seized in the town of Birao on the border with Chad and Sudan on November 22, while working for the French aid organisation Triangle.

"We have provided help with transportation and they are on a plane to Khartoum," ICRC spokesman Saleh Dabbakeh said in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

"Our two compatriots are now going to travel to Khartoum," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in a statement, without giving further details.

A group calling itself the African Free Eagles claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and that of another Frenchman, and threatened to kill them all unless French authorities began negotiations. The third aid worker was released last month.

The African Free Eagles group said it was composed of young African men disgusted with French policy in the continent and who wanted Paris to work in the interests of the African people.

Several French citizens are still being held hostage by various groups around the world, including two journalists in Afghanistan, who are believed to be in the hands of the Taliban.

"I hope that other compatriots held hostage elsewhere in the world are rapidly freed. We will not spare any effort to bring this about," Kouchner said.

(Reporting by Opheera McDoom in Khartoum and Crispian Balmer in Paris; Editing by Jon Hemming)