The crews of two Italian fishing
boats based in the Sicilian town of Mazara del Vallo who were
taken captive early in September and had been held in Libya
since have been released, Premier Giuseppe Conte and Foreign
Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Thursday.
The breakthrough came after Conte and Di Maio flew to Benghazi,
the stronghold of Libyan General Khalifa el-Haftar where the
crews were being held..
The crews are made up of 18 people: eight Italians, six
Tunisians, two Indonesians, and two Senegalese.
Conte posted a photo of the smiling fishermen on his Twitter
account with the comment "have a good journey home".
Di Maio tweeted the same photo with the comment "Our fishermen
are free".
Mazara del Vallo Mayor Salvatore Quinci said the crews were
already on the way back to Sicily.
"The fishermen have already spoken to their families and they
are aboard their boats, the Antartide and Medinea," said Quinci.
"Their Muslim colleagues have managed to exchange a few words
with their families too".
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