According to an unidentified source in the Sudanese government, the hostages and their abductors have crossed the border between Sudan and Libya and are currently some 13-15 km (8 or 9 miles) inside the Libyan territory.
It was previously reported that the kidnappers were holding the tourists in the no-man's land where the Sudanese, Egyptian and Libyan borders meet. Then hostages were taken into Sudan and held 25 km inside its territory.
An Egyptian security source said that the kidnappers presumably left the Sudanese territory due to a lack of potable water, the MENA news agency reported.
He added that the hostages were alive and well, and that one of the hostages maintains contact with his wife.
Reports of the kidnapping of five Germans, five Italians, and one Romanian and their eight Egyptian guides, who were on a desert safari near the border with Sudan, first appeared in the media on Monday, though the tourists and their Egyptian guides were abducted last Friday.
The information was made public only after one of the kidnapped Egyptians - the owner of a local tourist company - called his wife on a cell phone.
The abductors said earlier in the day that the ransom of 6 million euros ($8.8 million) must be paid by Germany and delivered by the German-born wife of one of the hostages, the owner of a Cairo travel company.
The identity of hostage-takers is still unclear with Egyptian officials saying they could be Sudanese or Chadian but Sudanese officials maintaining they are Egyptian. The Egyptian Tourism Ministry earlier said that the kidnappers were "ordinary criminals" and not part of any terrorist organization.
