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| French hostage Isabelle Prime is released in Yemen | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| A French woman who was taken hostage in Yemen in February has been freed, the French presidency has said. | |
| Isabelle Prime was freed on Thursday night and would imminently be returning to France, the president's office said. | |
| No details of her release were provided. | |
| The 30-year-old was working as a consultant on a World Bank-funded project when she was abducted on 24 February while travelling to the capital Sanaa. | |
| Her translator Sherine Makkaoui, who was seized at the same time, was released in March. | |
| In recent years tribesmen in Yemen have kidnapped foreigners as a means of putting pressure on the government to provide them with better services or to release jailed relatives. | |
| In June, France said that a video showing Ms Prime clearly in in distress was authentic. | |
| Dressed in black, she appealed to President Francois Hollande and the Yemeni authorities to arrange her release because she was "really, really tired". | |
| "I tried to kill myself several times because I know you will not co-operate and I totally understand." | |
| More than 3,000 people have been killed since a Saudi Arabian-led coalition began air strikes in March to drive back Houthi rebels. | |
| Aid agencies say a Saudi-enforced sea and air blockade on the country has worsened the humanitarian crisis after months of conflict. More than 80% of Yemen's 25 million people now need some form of aid. | |
| The fighting has also caused huge damage to the country's infrastructure, and the blockade has caused severe shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel. |