Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda describes the captivity of al-Qaeda

(TOKYO) – A Japanese journalist released from captivity in Syria said that he was happy to return home after living in "hell" for more than three years, but he did not want to go home. worried about how he could catch up with a changing world. 19659002] Kidnapped in 2015 by Syria's al Qaeda branch, Jumpei Yasuda was due to return home on Thursday after being released and taken to Turkey this week.

"I am so happy to be free," he told NHK of Japan. television on a flight from Antakya in southern Turkey to Istanbul. "But I worry a little bit about what will happen to me or what I should do in the future."

Yasuda said that he felt like he was safe. He had fallen behind the rest of the world and that he did not know how to catch up.

Yasuda described his 40 months of captivity as "a hell" both physically and mentally. He was kept in a tiny cell and tortured. There was a time when he was not allowed to bathe for eight months.

"Day after day, I thought," Oh, I could not go home anymore, "and that thought quickly invaded my head and made it difficult. to control me, "he said.

Yasuda was kidnapped by the group known at the time as Front Nusra. A war watchdog said it was recently detained by a Syrian commander of the Islamic Party of Turkistan, made up mostly of Chinese jihadists in Syria.

Yasuda stated that he thought he had been displaced several times during his captivity, but had remained in the camp. The province of Idlib, located in northwestern Syria, where incendiary bombs were rare.

"I was always afraid of never getting out or even getting killed," Yasuda told another Japanese broadcaster, TBS.

His release Tuesday

Japanese officials claim that Qatar and Turkey helped Yasuda's release, although their respective roles are not accurate. A respected journalist who began his career in a local newspaper, Yasuda began reporting on the Middle East in the early 2000s. Hijacked in Iraq in 2004 with three other Japanese, he was released after Islamic people had negotiated his release.

Islamic State Group.

Syria is one of the most dangerous places for journalists since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011. Dozens of people have been killed or abducted.

Several journalists are still missing and their fate is unknown. 19659016] [ad_2]
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