UN says 5 staff members released in Yemen after months in captivity

Five United Nations staff members who were kidnapped in Yemen 18 months ago by an al Qaeda affiliate have walked free, UN officials said.

David Gressly, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, said on Friday the five men – four Yemenis and one from Bangladesh — were "in good health, good spirits ... but they went through a very difficult period of isolation."

The five were freed after lengthy negotiations that included officials from Oman, UN deputy spokesperson 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 Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula."

Also known as AQAP, the group has been active in southern Yemen for years and is considered one of the global al Qaeda network’s most dangerous branches.

In February 2022, suspected al Qaeda militants abducted five UN staff members in southern Yemen’s Abyan province, Yemeni officials told The Associated Press at the time.

In a statement earlier on 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 worked for the UN Department of Security and Safety, he said.

Ransom

Sufiul Anam, a retired Bangladeshi lieutenant colonel who was the department’s field coordinator, told a news conference after arriving at Dhaka airport on 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," Sufiul Anam said, according to Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom-alo.

The newspaper quoted Bangladesh’s National Security Intelligence Director Imrul Mahmud as saying it was a long process to free him: "The kidnappers had demanded $3 million in ransom, but we did not need to pay any money."

Gressly said the United Nations never pays ransom, which is one reason the UN staffers may have been held for so long.

Three Yemeni security officials and a tribal leader also said that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was behind the kidnapping in Abyan province.

Sufiul Anam said they were kidnapped as they were returning to Aden from the village of Mudiyah after a field mission.

The Yemeni security officials and tribal leader said that after a series of fraught negotiations mediated by tribal leaders, the al-Qaeda militant group paid a ransom, and the UN employees were subsequently released.

The tribal leader requested anonymity out of fear of reprisals.

UN deputy spokesperson Haq responded to their statements that a ransom was paid, reiterating: "The UN does not pay ransoms, and we do not encourage other parties to pay a ransom."

'A lot to be processed'

Gressly told reporters he did not want to give details about the staff members' captivity.

"They’re extremely pleased to be back here in Aden," he said. "I think now ’s the time for us, simply to celebrate their return, to give them time to get back with their families."

"There’s a lot that will have to be processed in the days and weeks to come for them," he said.

"This is a very difficult situation to for anybody to live through, but they seem to have come through in remarkable condition."

Kidnappings are frequent in Yemen, an impoverished nation where armed tribesmen and militants take hostages to swap for prisoners or cash.

Yemen has been mired in conflict since the Houthi group ousted the government from the capital Sanaa in late 2014.

The Saudi Arabia-led military coalition intervened in 2015, aiming to restore the government.