A French woman who was abducted in Yemen in February along with her translator arrived back in France Friday after being freed, reports The Washington Post.
Isabelle Prime, 31, had been working in Yemen for the World Bank for about a year when she was kidnapped.
Smiling and wearing a blue cap and sunglasses, Prime stepped out of a French government jet around 1710 GMT and was met by French president François Hollande and foreign minister Laurent Fabius, as well as several friends and family members.
“My detention lasted about five months, but I knew France was behind me because it never gives up on one of its citizens,” Prime said in a brief statement at the airfield outside Paris where she landed. She gave no details about the circumstances of her capture or her time as a hostage.
The state-run Oman News Agency quoted an unidentified official at the ministry of foreign affairs confirming that Prime arrived in the sultanate early Friday in preparation for her repatriation to France.
Oman played a role in negotiating her release in coordination with “some Yemeni parties” following a request for help from the French government, according to the report.
Fabius said France paid no ransom.
Read more of this Associated Press report published by The Washington Post.