.gif)
Kidnappers freed a French Red Cross worker on Saturday three months after he was abducted in Chad and moved to Sudan's Darfur region.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the Frenchman, Laurent Maurice, a 37-year-old agronomist, was on his way to Khartoum and insisted that no ransom was paid.
Maurice "regained his freedom today... after 89 days in captivity, he is tired but appears to be in good health," the ICRC said, saying fellow staff member Gauthier Lefevre, kidnapped in Darfur, was still being held.
"ICRC policy is to never pay a ransom," a spokesman said.
The spokesman declined to say more about the conditions of his release in order not to jeopardise negotiations for the release of the other French Red Cross worker, Lefevre, who was kidnapped in October in West Darfur.
"He should go to Khartoum... he is a little tired," a Western diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Maurice had been seized by armed men on November 9, 2009 in eastern Chad, where he was assessing the harvest, just 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Sudanese border.
The kidnappers, a shadowy group calling itself the Falcons for the Liberation of Africa, then took him to Darfur, the scene since 2003 of a brutal war and wave of kidnappings of foreigners in the past year.
On Saturday they said Maurice was released because of France's "positive role" in repairing ties between Chad and Sudan.
"We have indeed released Laurent Maurice. We did not act for money but because we wanted France to change its policies in the region," Abu Mohammed al-Rizeigi, spokesman for the group, told AFP by telephone.
"We appreciate the positive role that France has played in the latest negotiations between Chad and Sudan," Rizeigi said.
Sudan and Chad, which have traded accusations of supporting rebel groups in each other's countries, are in the process of setting up a joint peace force along their border.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner confirmed Maurice's release, thanking "all those who worked tirelessly to secure this happy outcome" and saying he hoped "that it will be the same for the other hostages."
"Targeting non-governmental organisations and their staff -- to whom I pay tribute -- is unacceptable," Kouchner added in a statement.
The Falcons group has also claimed the kidnapping of two other French aid workers, who Rizeigi said are "still with us."
The ICRC said it "remains very concerned about Mr Lefevre and continues to press for his unconditional release."
Jordi Raich, the head of the ICRC's delegation in Sudan did not say under what circumstances Maurice had been freed.
"The ICRC is relieved that Laurent is now free, and happy that he will soon be back with his family and friends," he said.
"We would like to express our profound gratitude to all those who helped us in one way or another during his captivity."
The abductions had led to the suspension of some aid work in remote rural areas of eastern Chad and west Sudan, he added.
A total of four French aid workers, including the two ICRC staff, have been abducted since October in a string of attacks in an area straddling eastern Chad, Sudan's Darfur and the Central African Republic.
The pattern of incidents, along with carjackings and other security problems blamed on a mix of banditry and political demands, has alarmed the international aid community in the region.
