20100415
press tv

Eight Red Cross workers kidnapped by an armed group in the Democratic Republic of Congo are set to be released Thursday “without condition.”

Adrien Idi Amin, who is a leader of the Union of the Congolese People for Revolution, an offshoot of the Mai Mai militia, said that the seizure of the aid workers had been a mistake, AFP reported, quoting UN-sponsored Radio Okapi.

The eight, including seven Congolese and one Swiss national, had been seized by the Mai Mai Yakutumba rebels in the South Kivu town of Fizi last Friday afternoon.

The kidnapping came after Amin's men "thought that the vehicle coming from Minembwe was carrying enemy forces", Radio Okapi said.

Mai Mai is a general term for domestic defense forces that normally consist of pro-government factions in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The group was formed to resist Rwandan Hutu forces that fled into DR Congo after the genocide and controls its own territory in the region.

The region has been the scene of violent clashes that have resulted in the displacement of thousands of civilians in recent months.