Five UN staffers freed 18 months after being kidnapped by Al-Qaeda in Yemen
File photo.
Five staffers of the United Nations (UN), who were kidnapped 18 months ago, have been released, the UN said on Friday (August 11). Four of these staffers are from Yemen and one is from Bangladesh. UN Secretary-General Guterres welcomed their release.
According to a report by the news agency Reuters, the UN's top official in Yemen David Gressly met with the staffers and joined them for a meeting with the head of Yemen's Southern Transitional Council, whose forces helped secure the hostages' release.
'Staffers in very good health, spirits'
Speaking to reporters, Gressly said the staffers were in very good health and good spirits, despite everything that they went through. "But they went through a very difficult period of 18 months of isolation," he added.
The staffers were kidnapped in February last year by Yemen-based Al Qaeda (AQAP) in the Arabian Peninsula which has used the conflict between a Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-aligned Houthis to enhance its influence.
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Yemen has been mired in conflict since the Houthis ousted the government from the capital Sanaa in late 2014. The Saudi Arabia-led military coalition intervened in 2015, aiming to restore the government. On Friday, Gressly warned that AQAP was an increasing threat.
UN completes removal of oil from decaying tanker
In other news from Yemen, the UN said on Friday that it completed the removal of more than 1 million barrels of oil from the decaying Safer tanker off the Red Sea coast, averting a potential environmental disaster.
"It is a major moment of having averted a potentially catastrophic disaster," said Achim Steiner, administrator of the UN Development Programme, which coordinated complex efforts to remove the oil from the ship.
Salvage crews operated for more than two weeks amid high summer temperatures and strong currents, to offload the oil from the vessel. Steiner said the UN raised more than $120 million for the operation.
"It was literally until the last minutes that we looked at this operation as one that had to ensure the highest degree of preparedness for risk mitigation. The best end to the story will be when that oil actually is sold and leaves the region altogether," the administrator added.
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