Swiss woman held hostage in Yemen for a year is freed

Doha: Swiss woman held hostage in Yemen for nearly a year has been freed and has arrived in the Qatari capital Doha, the official QNA news agency reported Thursday.

“The Swiss hostage Sylvia Abrahat, abducted last year in Yemen, arrived overnight at Doha airport after having been freed thanks to mediation by Qatar,” said the agency, without elaborating.

Gunmen abducted the woman on March 14 last year from her home in Hodeida, western Yemen. She was working there as a language teacher.

Her abductors took her to the southeast province of Shabwa where the Al-Qaeda network has a strong presence. A Yemeni interior ministry spokesman said the abductors had called on the government to free members of their tribe in exchange for her release.

Most kidnappings of foreigners in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state are carried out by members of the country’s powerful tribes who use them as bargaining chips in disputes with the central government.