Egyptian skipper freed after 10 months of Al Houthi captivity
Mohammed and his crew were detained after mistakenly entering rebel-controlled island
Cairo: Egyptian authorities have freed an Egyptian ship captain after 10 months in captivity of Yemen’s Al Houthi militia, local media reported Saturday.
The captain, identified as Farouq Mohammed, said he had been captured after he had mistakenly entered an island controlled by Al Houthis due to bad weather and taken to the capital Sana’a.
Mohammed added that he and a 19-member crew including 14 Indians and five Bangladeshis had been taken by force to Sana’a.
End the issue
“My family made an appeal to the presidency and the Foreign Ministry. All state agencies acted and ended the issue,” Mohammed told satellite TV MBC Masr Friday night without details.
The skipper had been released after negotiations that had faced “several obstacles,” Egyptian state television said.
The Egyptian citizen returned home Friday in coordination with the Yemeni government and the International Organisation for Migraion after he had been evacuated to the Yemeni city of Aden, according to the television.
Al Houthis plunged Yemen into a devastating conflict after they toppled the internationally recognised government and overran Sana’a in late 2014.