Crowds of people have welcomed home to Sudan the passengers and crew who were hijacked on a plane diverted to Libya.

The BBC's Amber Henshaw says there were scenes of joy at Khartoum airport as they hugged friends and relatives.

The two hijackers gave themselves up in the desert town of Kurfa 24 hours after they seized the Sudanese plane, shortly after it left Nyala in Darfur.

Sudan has urged Libya to extradite two men who said they belonged to a Darfur rebel group, denied by its leadership.

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The desert oasis of Kufra is in a remote region approximately 1,700km (1,050 miles) south of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

According to the director of Kufra airport, who was quoted by Libyan media, the hijackers told the pilot of the Sun Air Boeing 737 they were from the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army of Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur.

Mr Nur, who is based in Paris, has strongly denied any involvement in the hijacking.

The hijackers were refused permission to land in Egypt and then demanded to be flown to France.

They freed all the 95 passengers and crew and surrendered to the Libyan authorities after a day-long stand-off on Wednesday.

A five-year conflict in Darfur has left about 200,000 people dead and more than two million homeless.

(BBC)

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