Egyptian Bedouin free 25 kidnapped Chinese workers

Feb 1, 2012, 6:55 GMT

Beijing - Egyptian Bedouin have freed 25 Chinese workers who were taken hostage in the central Sinai peninsula, Chinese state media quoted Chinese embassy officials as saying on Wednesday.

The cement factory workers were released after about 15 hours and were in 'good condition,' the official Xinhua news agency quoted Ma Jianchun, the commercial affairs counsellor at China's embassy in Cairo, as saying.

The workers were on their way to the factory by bus on Tuesday when they were seized by Bedouins who were blocking a main road to demand the release of relatives from prison, witnesses told dpa earlier.

Ma told Xinhua he met the workers at an Egyptian military hotel where they were housed after their release.

'The Egyptian government attached great importance to the matter,' he was quoted as saying. 'Its military leaders urged local authorities to take good care of the freed Chinese workers.'

The Bedouin protesters said they were relatives of people detained on charges related to the 2004 bombing at the Taba resort on Sinai's Red Sea coast that killed more than 30 people.

Meanwhile, the agency quoted Chinese officials as saying that 29 workers who were abducted in Sudan on Saturday were still being held by their Sudan People's Liberation Army captors, despite Sudanese media reports that 14 of them had been released.

China's Foreign Ministry said it summoned Sudan's ambassador to Beijing on Tuesday to urge Sudanese authorities to 'ensure the safety of the Chinese nationals and create favourable conditions for their swift release.'

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