A Yemeni woman holds a poster with pictures Isabelle Prime (right) and her Yemeni interpreter Sherine Makkaoui (left) at a rally in Yemens capital Sanaa on March 5. Ms Prime was freed today. (AFP File)
A French woman abducted in Yemen in February has been freed, French authorities said on Friday, adding that her captors had been about to kill her.
Development worker Isabelle Prime and her translator Shereen Makawi were abducted by gunmen in the capital Sanaa on Febraury 24 while on their way to work.
Yemeni tribal sources had said in March that Ms Prime would be released, but only Makawi, another hostage, was freed at the time.
"We have indications that her death was not far off," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on iTele television today. "If we had not got her out, she would be dead."
Asked whether a ransom had been paid, a French official said France never gave details on either the detention or release of hostages.
"I spoke to her by telephone this morning, she is doing as well as can be expected," Fabius said in a statement. "The release of Isabelle Prime shows yet again that France does not abandon its own."
A statement from President Francois Hollande said: "The president wishes to thank all those who helped achieve this outcome, and in particular Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, the Sultan of Oman."
Neighbouring Oman has often played a mediating role in hostage releases and regional diplomacy.
Authorities there helped locate Prime and bring her to the Gulf Arab sultanate at dawn, official news agency ONA cited an unnamed official at the Omani Foreign Ministry as saying.