Isabelle Prime appears frail and anguished in first sighting of her since her capture in Sana’a in February

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A French woman held hostage in Yemen has been seen for the first time since her capture in February, in a video in which she pleads for her release.

Isabelle Prime, who works as a consultant with ties to the World Bank, was abducted from Sana’a along with her Yemeni translator. The translator was released shortly afterwards, but Prime’s condition was not known.

In the video, Prime appears to be under severe duress, sitting in the desert dressed in a black robe and looking frail and anguished.

She addresses the French president, François Hollande, and the Yemeni president, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, saying: “Please bring me to France fast because I am really, really tired.”

The identity of Prime’s captors remains unclear. Yemen is home to one of the most active and dangerous branches of al-Qaida.

A French foreign ministry spokesman said his government had verified the authenticity of the video and that it was filmed in April. He said officials from the ministry would meet the Prime family on Tuesday.

The spokesman said the French government was “mobilised to obtain the release” of Prime.

Yemen has descended into civil war, with Shia Houthi rebels in control of Sana’a and several other cities. The rebels are supported by Iran and allied with army units loyal to the country’s ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Hadi, the internationally recognised president, has been forced to flee the country.

A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia began conducting air strikes against rebel positions in March, but two months of bombing have done little to push back the rebel forces. The air strikes and ground-level violence have killed more than 1,000 civilians and displaced 500,000.

On Monday, coalition warplanes bombed Sana’a, targeting weapon depots hidden in nearby Noqoum mountain.