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Abducted French aid staff freed in Yemen
Source: Agencies |
November 15, 2011, Tuesday
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THREE French aid workers held hostage by al-Qaida militants in Yemen have been freed with the help of the sultan of Oman after nearly six months in captivity, the French president's office said yesterday.
Kidnappers linked to al-Qaida's offshoot in the region had demanded a US$12 million in exchange for the three, and had threatened to kill the hostages if ransom wasn't paid imminently, according to Yemeni officials.
A Yemeni mediator said the Omani government and a Yemeni businessman paid a ransom, though he gave no figure and the ransom couldn't immediately be confirmed.
The hostage ordeal came amid an uprising against the 30-year reign of President Ali Abdullah Saleh that has unraveled security in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country. Al-Qaida-linked militants have taken control of entire towns in the restive south.
The aid group Triangle Generation Humanitaire said the workers were in good health. But the circumstances of their release remained murky.
The senior Yemeni tribal mediator said Oman and Yemeni tribesmen negotiated the release, and that the hostages were handed over to mediators one by one. He said a helicopter carried the hostages from the southern Yemeni city of Shabwa - a hotbed of Islamic militants - to Oman late on Sunday.
French authorities insist the government doesn't pay ransoms. French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office issued a statement announcing the release early yesterday, but provided no details.
The two women and one man from Triangle Generation Humanitaire were abducted on May 28 in eastern Yemen's Hadramawt Province, which is home to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
"We know they are in good physical shape," a director of the group, Patrick Verbruggen, said. "We are sharing a moment of happiness."
Kidnappers linked to al-Qaida's offshoot in the region had demanded a US$12 million in exchange for the three, and had threatened to kill the hostages if ransom wasn't paid imminently, according to Yemeni officials.
A Yemeni mediator said the Omani government and a Yemeni businessman paid a ransom, though he gave no figure and the ransom couldn't immediately be confirmed.
The hostage ordeal came amid an uprising against the 30-year reign of President Ali Abdullah Saleh that has unraveled security in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country. Al-Qaida-linked militants have taken control of entire towns in the restive south.
The aid group Triangle Generation Humanitaire said the workers were in good health. But the circumstances of their release remained murky.
The senior Yemeni tribal mediator said Oman and Yemeni tribesmen negotiated the release, and that the hostages were handed over to mediators one by one. He said a helicopter carried the hostages from the southern Yemeni city of Shabwa - a hotbed of Islamic militants - to Oman late on Sunday.
French authorities insist the government doesn't pay ransoms. French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office issued a statement announcing the release early yesterday, but provided no details.
The two women and one man from Triangle Generation Humanitaire were abducted on May 28 in eastern Yemen's Hadramawt Province, which is home to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
"We know they are in good physical shape," a director of the group, Patrick Verbruggen, said. "We are sharing a moment of happiness."
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