A Sudanese militia group have released a German and a Kenyan aid worker abducted in an attack on a health centre in south Sudan earlier this week, the World Vision aid agency said today.
World Vision said the two men, who survived on only milk for the last five days, appeared in good health and were expected to arrive in the Kenyan capital Nairobi later on Saturday.
Another German aid worker abducted in the same ambush on Monday was released on Thursday.
"Words cannot express the joy and relief of all World Vision staff...following the safe return of two employees who were held against their will for more than five days by a rebel group in southern Sudan," the president of World Vision International, Dean Hirsch, said in a statement.
The aid agency, which has operated in Sudan since the 1970s, named the German worker as Ekkehard Forberg, a 31-year old peace-building and conflict-resolution officer based in the World Vision office in Frankfurt.
The Kenyan, 46-year old Andrew Omwenga, is World Vision's administrative officer at Waat in Upper Nile Province, where the workers were seized after militiamen raided a community health centre on Monday.
A Kenyan World Vision worker, 46-year-old Charles Kibbe, was killed in the attack.
The agency said the United Nations and the German Foreign Ministry were involved in securing the release of the two workers, but said it would give out more information next week after the pair were debriefed.
The released workers are to undergo medical tests in Nairobi before they are reunited with their families, the statement said.
Hirsch said Kibbe's death highlighted the need to provide more protection for aid workers. "This tragic incident underscores the importance of ensuring the safety and security of humanitarian workers," he said.
For the past six months, the area around Waat has been held by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) which has been fighting the government in Khartoum since 1983.
Around two million people have been killed since the Sudanese conflict began. Analysts said the attack on Waat was carried out by Nuer militia loosely aligned with the government of Sudan but said it was possible the militiamen were acting independently. World Vision works on child malnutrition, immunisation and primary health care in the Waat region.