An Algerian man identified as Omar bin Omran, who went missing 26 years ago has reportedly been found alive in his neighbour’s cellar.
Omran, who is now 45 years old was said to have gone missing from Djelfa in Algeria, during the Algerian civil war in the 1990s, when he was in his late teens.
BBC reports that Omran was found just 200 meters away from where he grew up, while officials confirmed they had arrested a 61-year-old man suspected of keeping him prisoner.
Omran’s disappearance reportedly came in the middle of a decade-long conflict between Algeria’s government and Islamist groups.
With his disappearance, his family feared that he had been among an estimated 200,000 people killed during the war or as many as 20,000 people kidnapped.
However, reports say Omran was found hidden in a sheepfold under haystacks on 12 May, following a complaint received by the public prosecutor’s office against an anonymous person claiming that Omran was in the house of one of his neighbours, inside a sheepfold.
BBC quoted a court official as saying, “Following this report, the general prosecutor ordered the national gendarmerie to open an in-depth investigation and officers went to the house in question.
“On 12 May at 8pm local time, [they] found victim Omar bin Omran, aged 45, in the cellar of his neighbour, BA, aged 61.”
The court official added that the suspect reportedly attempted to flee the scene but was restrained and arrested.
The ministry said the investigation was still in progress and Omran was in the process of receiving medical and psychological care.
A spokesman described the crime as “heinous”.
Omran reportedly 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.”
Omran’s mother was said to have died in 2013.
