SANAA/CAIRO, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- A total of 32 Egyptian fishermen arrested by Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea were released and sent back to Egypt on Tuesday, the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency reported.
The Egyptian fishermen were arrested by the Houthi coast forces in the Yemeni waters, Saba said, without specifying the date of the arrest.
The Egyptian fishermen were sent back to Cairo by an Egyptian airplane.
Meanwhile, the Egypt's state television confirmed the arrival of the 32 Egyptian fishermen at Cairo's airport.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi hailed on Tuesday the efforts by the authorities to send 32 Egyptian fishermen back home after their 2-month detention in Yemen.
"Those efforts resulted in preserving their lives and safely transferring them to the Egyptian territories in the framework of the country's keenness on securing its citizens home and abroad," said the Egyptian president in a statement.
"We were in direct communication with the fishermen to reassure them and give them a message that the state is standing by them," Nabila Makram, Egyptian minister of emigration and Egyptian expatriates' affairs, told reporters at the airport.
