Officials have arrested a 61-year-old man suspected of keeping him prisoner.

A man has been found alive in his neighbour’s cellar after going missing about 26 years ago.

Omar bin Omran disappeared from Djelfa, in Algeria, during the Algerian civil war in the 1990s, when he was in his late teens.

Now aged 45, Mr Bin Omran has been discovered just 200m from where he grew up.

Officials confirmed they had arrested a 61-year-old man suspected of keeping him prisoner.

Mr Bin Omran’s disappearance came in the middle of a decade-long conflict between Algeria’s government and Islamist groups.

His family feared he had been among an estimated 200,000 killed, or as many as 20,000 kidnapped, during the unrest.

But he was found hidden in a sheepfold under haystacks on 12 May, according to reports.

  • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Mr Bin Omran told his rescuers he had at times seen his family from his prison, but claimed he had been unable to call out for help “because of a spell that his captor had cast on him”, local media reported.

    What the fuck?

      • Delusional@lemmy.worldEnglish
        01·
        6 months ago

        Yeah but that ain’t superstitious that’s just being dumb as shit. Like how did he even arrive at that dumbass conclusion? Did the guy tell him he cast a spell and he just accepted it or did he try to yell and no one heard him so he thought, “yup that’s a spell right there.”