Although the Department of Foreign Affairs has yet to confirm it, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ministry of foreign and international cooperation said its government had secured the release and repatriation of four engineers—three Filipinos and a Korean—who have been held captive by armed militants in western Libya since July last year.
The ministry said in a statement that it received requests for help from the Philippines and South Korea, and with “solid cooperation and coordination between the UAE and the Libyan National Army, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Hafter, search efforts had continued and resulted in finding them safely.”
According to the Emirati foreign ministry, the four rescued civil engineers of a desalination plant, were airlifted to Abu Dhabi before being repatriated to their home countries.
Libya has been engulfed in civil war since 2011.—JEROME ANING