Red Cross repatriates Sudanese POWs

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JUBA, South Sudan, April 26 (UPI) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross said it helped with the repatriation of 13 Sudanese prisoners of war held by South Sudan's government.

Sudanese authorities received the 13 POWs after they were released by Juba with the help of Egyptian authorities.

"We are grateful to the Egyptian government for its support in carrying out this operation, and to the Sudanese and South Sudanese governments for their cooperation," Melker Mabeck, the head of the ICRC delegation in Juba, said.

The countries have moved closer to war since South Sudan seized territory across the ill-defined border. South Sudan's forces pulled back but Sudan bombed targets in South Sudan's state of Unity.

An African Union peace council said it was working on a new peace plan aimed at settling the conflict between Sudan and South Sudan.

South Sudan gained independence last year as part of a 2005 peace agreement, though ethnic conflicts, disputes over oil and border skirmishes are threatening the peace. The AU plan stresses the integrity of north-south borders defined when Sudan became an independent country in 1956, the independent Sudan Tribune reports.

"(The AU) council reiterates that the territorial boundaries of states shall not be altered by force, and that any territorial disputes shall be settled exclusively by peaceful means," the body was quoted by the news service as stating.