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Freed Russian return home

    JOHANNESBURG

    The five Russian pilots who were held by Angola's UNITA rebels have left Zambia for Russia, news reports said on Friday.

    Home Affairs Minister, Peter Machungwa, said in an interview on Thursday that the pilots left Zambia Thursday in an official plane sent by their government to pick them up. The Unita rebels seized the pilots after shooting down their plane a year ago.

    In Moscow, a government spokesman said 13 other pilots missing in Angola were still unaccounted for. He said their whereabouts were unknown and that the authorities did not know whether they too were held by UNITA rebels.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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