Following intense negotiations, fourteen Iranian fishermen have returned home after eight years in captivity by al-Shabab militants in Somalia.
According to the Iranian news agency ISNA, they were released after “lengthy negotiations with government officials, tribal chiefs and Somali elders.”
They were flown back to Iran late on Saturday before being taken to their hometown of Chabahar, in the south.
Some of them had been held for as long as eight years after being kidnapped in international waters close to Somalia.
A month ago, Somali police said they had found found 20 foreigners (14 Iranians and six Pakistanis near land controlled by militants).
Police confirmed that some of the fishermen had been abducted by al-Shabab in 2014 and others had been kidnapped in 2019.
Family members of the fishermen welcomed them in a light ceremony at the main international airport in Tehran on Saturday night.
The militant group al-Shabab has carried out several attacks in Somalia in recent months, including twin car bomb explosions in the capital Mogadishu in October, in which 120 people died.
The government has launched a comprehensive offensive against al-Shabab, working together with local clan militia.