The cremains of five Chinese workers kidnapped and killed in Sudan were carried back by a charter flight to Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, Wednesday.

The four rescued workers and the workgroup of the Chinese government to handle the aftermath also arrived at Shijiazhuang aboard the same plane.

The portraits of the dead and their cremains were handed over to their relatives at the Zhengding airport.

Nine Chinese workers of the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation were kidnapped by a group of local militants from an oilfield in the restive west Sudanese region of Darfur on Oct. 18. Five of them were murdered by their captors, while the other four were rescued.

The Chinese government on Oct. 30 sent a workgroup formed by delegates from the Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Commerce and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to handle the aftermath of the kidnapping.

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2008)