UN staff released: United Nations has announced the release of five UN staff members who were kidnapped in Yemen 18 months ago by an Al-Qaeda affiliate, officials said on Friday (August 11).
UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen David Gressly said that five men which included four from Yemen and one from Bangladesh “went through a very difficult period of isolation”, however, they were in “good spirits and health”.
The five staff members walked free after lengthy negotiations which also included officials from Oman, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.
Gressly, who spoke to UN reporters after flying with the four Yemenis to the country's southern port city of Aden, said: “I can confirm that the hostage-takers were Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.”
The group is also known as AQAP and has been active in southern Yemen for years. It is considered one of the most dangerous branches of global Al-Qaeda network which has attempted to carry out attacks on the US mainland.
“This is a threat that remains here in in Yemen — and remains actually an increasing threat,” Gressly said of Al-Qaeda.
Suspected Al-Qaeda militants had abducted five UN staff members in February 2022 in southern Yamen’s Abyan province, officials said.
UN statement
In a statement earlier Friday, the UN's Haq named the freed men as Akm Sufiul Anam; Mazen Bawazir; Bakeel al-Mahdi; Mohammed al-Mulaiki; and Khaled Mokhtar Sheikh.
All of them worked for the UN Department of Security and Safety.
Sufiul Anam, a retired Bangladeshi lieutenant colonel who was the department's field coordinator, told a news conference after arriving at Dhaka airport Wednesday that he never thought he'd return home after a “horrifying” experience in Yemen's hills and desert at the hands of terrorists.
“There was a fear of death every day; it cannot be expressed in words; it is seen in films only. I was blindfolded all the time. The terrorists changed my location 18 times and kept me at 10 places. Fortunately, they did not torture me,” Sufiul Anam said.
Bangladesh's National Security Intelligence Director Imrul Mahmud said that the kidnappers had demanded USD 3 million in ransom, but they did not pay any money.
Gressly said the United Nations never pays ransom, which is a reason why the UN staffers may have been held for so long.
(With AP inputs)
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