An Indian priest in Yemen kidnapped by gunmen last year has appealed for help in a video released online.
Father Tom Uzhunnalil was kidnapped in March 2016 when gunmen stormed a care home in Aden, a southern port city of Yemen. The assailants, who had been posing as relatives of the care home's residents, killed eight elderly residents, four Indian nuns two Yemeni female staff members and a guard.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack but it was described by Yemen's president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi as terrorism.
'They are treating me well to the extent they are able,' Uzhunnalil said in the video hosted by Aden Time news website, which can be seen below.
He added: 'My health condition is deteriorating quickly and I require hospitalisation as early as possible'.
Uzhunnalil said his captors had contacted the Indian government and the Catholic bishop in Abu Dhabi with their ransom demands but the response was 'not encouraging'.
He pleaded: 'My dear family people, do what you can to help me be released. Please, please do what you can to help to get me released. May God bless you for that.'
The authenticity of the video has not yet been verified.
The situation in Yemen, a small country near Saudi Arabia, has been described by Tearfund as the 'world's worst humanitarian crisis'. The eruption of civil war in March 2015 saw a Shia Muslim rebel group known as the Houthis drive government forces out of Aden. While the rebels have since been expelled from Aden, the area remains insecure.
Aid groups say around 19 million people (70 per cent of the population) in Yemen are in need of assistance, with 10.3 million on the brink of starvation.
Christians are a minority in the Sunni-majority country and following the conflict, most have now fled the region.
Additional reporting by Reuters
