Following the handover, two helicopters bearing the ICRC emblem will head for Venezuela, where the former hostages will be reunited with their families and loved ones.

The ICRC wishes to express its appreciation to all parties – especially the governments of Colombia and Venezuela, and the FARC-EP – for helping to make this humanitarian operation a success and enabling these four people to rejoin their families after several years in captivity.

The ICRC continues to be concerned about the hostages still in the hands of armed groups, and about their families, still waiting for their relatives to be released.

As a neutral, impartial and independent humanitarian organization, the ICRC will continue to look for all possible means of obtaining the release of all the hostages as rapidly as possible.