Nairobi/Khartoum - Two foreign aid workers kidnapped in Sudan's restive Darfur province at the beginning of April have been freed, reports said Thursday.

The two workers, Frenchwoman Claire Dubois and Canadian Stephanie Jodoin, were working for Aide Medicale Internationale near Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, when they were taken by armed gunmen.

The Sudan Tribune quoted the kidnappers as saying the pair were released for humanitarian reasons. The two are in Khartoum for medical treatment.

The kidnappers had earlier demanded that six French citizens - employees of Zoe's Arc - who were pardoned being found guilty of trying to abduct children from neighbouring Chad be retried by France.

This was the second kidnapping involving aid workers since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur.

Four employees of Medecins Sans Frontieres were held for four days in mid-March.

Sudan in March expelled thirteen foreign aid agencies providing food, medical and other assistance in Darfur after the arrest warrant was issued.

The agencies were accused of spying for the United States and providing intelligence to the ICC.

There were fears Al-Bashir's hardline stance could increase tensions and legitimize attacks against the remaining aid workers in Darfur.

An aid worker with the Canadian agency The Fellowship of African Relief was also shot dead in Darfur in late March.

The ICC accuses al-Bashir of genocide and other war crimes carried out in Darfur.

The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribesmen took up arms against what they called decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.

The United Nations has said as many as 300,000 people may have been killed and 2.5 million displaced by the conflict. The Sudanese government claims around 10,000 have died. (dpa)