KHARTOUM, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Sudanese security forces freed an abducted Italian aid worker in the troubled Western region of Darfur on Friday, security officials said.
In August, an armed group kidnapped Francesco Azzara, a 34-year-old logistics specialist, in Nyala in South Darfur while he was driving to the airport.
"The hostage was freed in a military security operation," a senior security official told Reuters in the capital Khartoum, adding six kidnappers had been arrested.
Azzara told reporters upon his arrival at Khartoum airport: "I want to see my family as soon as possible. I will get to them as soon as possible."
Darfur is the scene of an eight-year long insurgency of mainly non-Arab rebels against the government in Khartoum.
Fighting has declined from its peak in 2003 and 2004 but clashes between government troops, militias, bandits, tribes and rival rebel factions continue. (Reporting by El-Tayeb Siddig; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Sophie Hares)
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