Yemeni authorities agreed to the release of 64 Egyptian sailors and fishermen on Tuesday morning, who had been detained after they had crossed into Yemeni waters illegally, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Negotiations are still ongoing in the Yemeni seaside city of Hodeida, concerning administrative fines and the impounding of three vessels, seized when the fishermen entered into Yemeni waters.
The detained Egyptians were also accused of fishing illegally.
The public prosecution office in Hodeida ended their investigations in response to requests by the Egyptian embassy in Sana’a, which had been negotiating their release since their arrest by the Yemeni Authorities.
The embassy had been in intense contact with the prosecutor general’s office, the deputy Yemeni foreign minister, and the undersecretary of the fisheries ministry; as well as with representatives of the Egyptian community in Yemen and the owners of the fishing boats.
They also asked fishermen to “respect the territorial sovereignty of states” and “to avoid being arrested and subjected to legal accountability”.
In an earlier statement the ministry said they had been “taking into account the complex political and security conditions there”.
Yemen is currently in the process of forming a new government, after Shi’a Houthi rebels took over vital government institutions in September. The Houthis takeover of two provinces and the port city of Hodeida put them in armed conflict with several Sunni tribes that are allegedly backed by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. On 9 October, a suicide bomber targeted a Houthi rally, killing 47 people.
