A French couple who went missing in the Gulf of Aden off the Yemen coast have been rescued by coalition forces operating in international waters, a top Yemeni coast guard official has said. “The tourist yacht had a technical problem 120 miles (193 kilometres) offshore in international waters and called for help,” said a statement carried late Friday by Yemen’s official news agency Saba.
The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said four people had been on the yacht while a Yemen coastguard official said a couple were listed on the boat when made a stopover there. French daily Le Parisien reported that the pair were from the country’s southeastern Var region and were on a round-the-world voyage.
The foreign ministry said only that it was doing all it could to locate those on board. Spokesman Bernard Valero said the crew issued a mayday signal but by the time the German frigate Bayern arrived there was nobody on board. “Following the alert from the crew, we asked our German partners to send one of their ships taking part in Operation Atalanta,” Valero said, referring to the EU anti-piracy mission off Somalia.
