Captive (2016) s01e07 Episode Script
Al Qaeda Hostages, Yemen
My name is Yolande Korkie [translator in Arabic.]
My name is Yolande Korkie.
My husband and I are from South Africa.
My husband is a teacher.
We came to Yemen in 2009 to teach Yemeni people English language.
[Yolande Korkie.]
There's not a place in the world which we can call a place that's the safest place in the world to be.
Somehow, when you're inside of a difficult situation, there's something else keeping you there.
You change your boundaries of what's normal.
[siren wailing.]
God is good if it goes well with us.
But we found out that that's not true.
God is good even if it doesn't go well with us.
[chanting.]
- [explosion.]
- [gunfire.]
Lord, forgive them.
Because they don't know what they're doing.
Pierre was older.
He was wiser.
He had a peacefulness exuding from him, which just really attracted me.
There was a beautiful person on the inside, which I just really, really fell in love with.
Pierre had a passion for serving poor people, and there was an invitation to go and visit a poor Middle Eastern country.
And we wanted to see what it was like to explore new things in life.
It was a new adventure.
Bye! Bye! We read up a little bit about Yemen, but we didn't really understand the culture.
We didn't really understand how poor Yemen was.
The poverty really touched our hearts.
Pierre was going to teach full-time.
We helped a little bit at the hospitals.
We kept on just reaching out to the poor, wherever they needed and what they needed.
We started just opening up our home and inviting people and eating meals with them, and dipping that hand into the same bowl and sharing life.
It was safe.
It was welcoming.
[man on TV.]
Something enormously important is happening half a world away from us tonight.
The nation of Egypt is probably changing forever, and it may not stop there.
What appears to be a revolution is underway, against the almost 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak.
[shouting.]
[Yolande.]
When the Arab Spring erupted in Tunis and then it spilled over to Egypt, it was like watching a tsunami coming closer.
You could see something was coming and we were all like, "Is it gonna hit Yemen? Is it gonna come to Yemen?" They kept on saying, "Insha'Allah, it won't come to us.
Insha'Allah, it will be okay.
" [siren wailing.]
[woman on TV.]
In Yemen's capital, dozens killed and injured in a suicide blast, al-Qaeda believed to be behind it.
[siren wailing.]
[Yolande.]
The whole atmosphere in Yemen started to change.
The very fragile governmental system started to fall apart, and as it was falling apart, al-Qaeda started moving in on the sideline.
A distrust settled amongst the people.
The bustle and the hustle sort of slowly died down.
Petrol wasn't available.
Goods were not coming into towns.
The suffering that they'd been going through because of the poverty was completely out of control.
So wherever there was help needed, we were now in a position to give a hand.
We knew that there were risks in Yemen and tried to prepare ourselves and our children.
We changed the routines that we were adhering to.
We didn't keep to the same roads.
Our normal was changing without us noticing it.
[man.]
When it comes to kidnappings, al-Qaeda will have to decide which person is the most important to kidnap and when.
We have to be patient.
They have to consider when is the best time to hit and to make a move.
They know when they're coming and when they're leaving.
They know they're gonna get them anytime they want.
We basically placed an invisible cage over them.
[man on TV.]
Stability in Yemen is critical for the Middle East and the United States.
Yemen borders Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer.
And Yemen is home to a powerful al-Qaeda cell.
[gunshots firing on video.]
[Morten Storm.]
There is only one truth.
Jihad must be carried out to spread Islam.
So whoever is trying to prevent that happening has to be killed.
Islam was spread with the sword and that was very attractive to me.
[chanting.]
[Yolande.]
As the revolution picked up, governments were telling their citizens in Yemen, "It's time to leave.
" We'd become so entrenched with the people that leaving was not an option.
So it was almost like we were walking against the traffic.
[man on TV.]
US Special Operations Forces on the ground in Yemen are coordinating air strikes against al-Qaeda targets.
Those attacks from American jets and unmanned drones, armed with hellfire missiles, have increased over the past month as political violence has weakened the Yemeni government.
[Yolande.]
It became a new lifestyle.
It became normal to hear fighter jets going over at 10:00 in the morning when you're hanging up your washing.
By February in 2013, Pierre's father became ill, who lived in Port Elizabeth in South Africa.
And we had an urge to just spend time with him.
And by the 20th of May, Pierre's father passes away.
On Monday, the passports arrive in Taiz, and the visas have been granted.
We will go collect them the afternoon.
Our children, Peter and Lisa, they were gonna watch TV.
There was no problem leaving them.
We greeted the guard, and he wasn't making eye contact that day for some reason.
[engine starts.]
We were gonna be maybe, at the most, an hour.
And off we went.
[in Arabic.]
They're on their way.
[speaking Arabic.]
[Yolande.]
Because of the revolution, there were checkpoints going up like mushrooms.
The army was very active in that time, and we were not concerned if a new checkpoint arose because we imagined it was the army just doing their job.
[rifle firing.]
[shouting.]
Pierre! Pierre! No! No! No! [screaming.]
Everything really just happened in a second.
[music over dialogue.]
This is not happening.
This is not happening.
[Yolande screams.]
Those split seconds were just life-changing.
[tires screeching.]
We didn't know where we were going.
We had no control.
I looked up into the rear mirror, and there I see beloved Taiz just slipping out of reach.
The terrain that we were in was just unimaginable.
We kept asking ourselves, "Are we really still in Yemen? Is it possible?" There was nothing.
No house.
No tree.
No blades of grass, no children, no animals.
Nothing.
And the journey just stretches on and on and on.
[man chanting.]
We tried to figure out what tribe is this that we're dealing with.
They put in a CD and the music blasted through the car.
Just shouting out, asking the question, "Do you know who we are? Do you know who we are? We are al-Qaeda.
" [music continues playing.]
And they ventured into the outskirts of a village.
[speaking Arabic.]
[speaking Arabic.]
[Yolande.]
We didn't know if they were gonna kill us or they were gonna hand us over.
[Yolande and Pierre breathing heavily.]
[Yolande gasps.]
Pierre.
[gate closes.]
And then we overhear a two-way radio.
[man speaking Arabic.]
Do you have the hostages? [Yolande.]
The voice that's coming across that radio [man speaks Arabic.]
Have they been delivered to you? just rips through us.
Taiz is dangerous now.
It's crawling with police looking for them.
[Yolande.]
We recognize it as our guard's voice, Ali, who we had in Taiz.
Ali had betrayed us.
[indistinct chatter on radio.]
And as that thought comes to us, we we simultaneously said, "The children.
" Did he betray us and them, or did he just betray us? Were they kidnapped as well? [in Arabic.]
Pierre Korkie was a volunteer teacher.
He taught a group of students in the afternoon.
Pierre was a really awesome person and very nice, too.
His way of teaching was unique.
[shouting.]
An anonymous gang has kidnapped two foreigners.
Nobody knows why they were kidnapped.
[man speaking Arabic.]
I just couldn't ignore this story.
I decided I had to do something if I could.
It was something I felt very deeply about.
I saw how corruption and poverty contributed to the destruction of my country.
I used to be a journalist, so I knew every aspect of the situation in Yemen.
I knew that if I didn't try to help release them, then no one would.
[man.]
I had just returned from Syria, set up a hospital there and helped in the war zone.
And when I got to South Africa, I got a call from Anas, who is my representative in Yemen.
Anas is an Arab.
Yemen is a country that's very hospitable.
Anas was feeling very offended that Arab people in Yemen had captured two South Africans.
[Anas al-Hamati.]
Our organization, Gift of the Givers, began in Yemen in 2012, and we still have many projects there.
Our aim is to provide food and clean water.
These are the things most lacking in Yemen.
I rang Dr.
Imtiaz Sooliman.
I told him the news about the kidnapping of two South Africans in Yemen and I asked him if there was anything we could do.
In 2009, I got married and started my family.
I had simple dreams to have a normal life and to make a happy family.
My wife Fadia is very patient.
She always encourages me to do the right thing.
But she was not aware of just how risky this might be.
I had no skills at all in tracking or negotiation.
I visited the places where Yolande and Pierre used to work.
I visited their friends and met their work colleagues.
I kept asking them whether they had heard anything.
I also met the local tribesmen.
These tribes have a strong relationship with al-Qaeda, even though they are not part of the organization.
Every person I met, I gave him my business card.
[Yolande.]
There was a couple of things that we identified we would need to survive, emotionally, spiritually, physically.
There are some things that one can't live without.
And so we decided pen and paper was really important for both of us to journal.
Our thoughts and our conversations would juggle between South Africa, missing the outside spaces, missing being outside.
We were missing smelling the rain, being in nature, being with our friends.
And of course, missing the children was torture.
It was like being in a torture chamber, day after day.
There was about a lapse of a week or ten days that there was no television news coming in.
[shouting in Arabic.]
[Yolande.]
And then suddenly, one day, they were just elated.
They were shouting, "Allah Akbar.
" And they were very happy because an American had been kidnapped from Sana'a.
[Storm.]
Al-Qaeda considers America to be the new dictators, the world dictators.
And they're the ones who interfere in the affairs of the Muslims.
So, for them, the most valuable people that they can kidnap will be American citizens.
[Yolande.]
We thought, "The poor guy.
This young man had now also fallen prey to the same circumstances that we were in.
" But we never imagined that our fates would intertwine in the bizarre way that it did.
[Al-Hamati.]
Seven months after the kidnapping of Yolanda and Pierre, I received a phone call from Abyan Province.
[cell phone ringing.]
They said, "We have Yolande and her husband and if you want to negotiate, come and visit us in Abyan.
Call us on this number.
" [speaking Arabic.]
I didn't know if they were tribesmen or al-Qaeda.
[Imtiaz Sooliman.]
Anas asked me, "What do you think I should do? Should I go?" I said, "What is your thinking?" He said, "I want to go.
" I said, "For seven months what do you think we've been doing all this time? Have we not been waiting for this moment?" [Al-Hamati.]
I told him, "If anything bad happens to me, please take care of my family, because I don't know what these people want.
" The first meeting was on the side of the road.
Some men arrived armed to the teeth.
They weren't tribesmen.
When I met them, I knew they were al-Qaeda.
I felt trouble had just begun.
Their first words were, "We want $100,000 just to start talking.
" [Storm.]
It's a massive, huge business for al-Qaeda and for Islamic organizations to kidnap people.
When I was working for them, it would be an easy income for al-Qaeda.
[Al-Hamati.]
It was a quick meeting.
All they demanded was the money.
You must be patient and honest when you're dealing with al-Qaeda.
If they have any doubt about you, they will assassinate you without hesitation.
[chattering.]
Three days later, I received a call.
[cell phone ringing.]
[Sooliman.]
They said, "Come again to a certain point.
" They didn't tell him why.
They didn't tell him for what reason.
Is he coming because they're gonna kill him? Or they're coming to discuss further? Or is there gonna be another development? [horn honking.]
[in Arabic.]
We started negotiation, and they said they can free the hostages now [speaking Arabic.]
but they need the ransom amount of $3 million.
I knew from the beginning that this amount of money is exaggerated especially as they are South Africans and not Americans.
Then I had an idea.
I said, "If you give me Yolande, we will raise the money, and I will deliver it to you.
You have my guarantee.
I am sure that whenever you need me, you know how to get me.
" They started looking at each other, which meant they were thinking about my words.
My heart was beating very fast, and I was afraid that they will accept my offer.
Where are we going to get $3 million? [stammering.]
[Yolande.]
When Pierre was four years old, he had a viral infection, which rendered him deaf in his left ear.
And as time went by, he became really sick.
He woke up one morning, and he was completely deaf.
He was There was no sound.
He woke me with a little note.
And it said "I miss you.
" I just wrapped myself around him because there was no no way that he could hear that I wanted to say I love him.
I just hoped that in every nerve ending and with every tear and every smile that we could give between the two of us, that he would understand that I loved him, and I was there.
I would be there with him every step of this way.
[shushing.]
[men speaking Arabic.]
[Yolande.]
Around the first of January, on New Year, there's a scurry and a cleaning up next door.
The guards are getting ready.
Somebody important's coming.
And they say Abu Basir is there to see us.
[inaudible.]
We were thinking, "Who do we think this is? What is going on?" [Storm.]
In this picture here, we have Nasser al-Wuhayshi, aka Abu Basir.
I met him in 2012.
He was, at that time, the leader of al-Qaeda AQAP in the Arabian Peninsula.
He was Osama bin Laden's personal secretary in Afghanistan.
He's basically the charisma of al-Qaeda in the entire Arabian Peninsula.
He was very soft and friendly to his followers and harsh with the disbelievers and enemies.
[Yolande.]
Initially, because we didn't know who he was, we're confused.
Pierre and I are confused.
But because of the paraphernalia that went around his visit, we realized that he was an important person, that he had some information and knowledge, and we wanted to know where our children were and what was going on.
We kept asking, and he finally came back with an answer.
And he said they left Yemen a couple of days after our kidnapping, accompanied by the South African ambassador.
We were just The relief was immense.
And then he tells us that we will be going home in 24 hours.
[cell phone ringing.]
[Al-Hamati.]
I received a call at 11 a.
m.
on the 9th of January.
They said, "Yolande will be released, and we will call after a short while.
" I rang my wife and told her that I am going on a very dangerous trip to release a hostage in Abyan in a dangerous place.
I told her, "These could be my last words to you, but I'm not backing down.
" Driving through those areas, you are very likely to come across people who might start shooting at you.
They might stop you, hijack your car, rob or kill you.
Anything is possible.
The risk was enormous, and I couldn't think about anything.
I sat in silence wondering, "What will happen next?" [knocking on door.]
[Yolande.]
At 3:00 a.
m.
, they knocked us up.
[yells.]
The guard entered and he said, "Get dressed.
You're leaving.
" I grabbed my journals.
Pierre grabs his journals.
And for the first time, we let ourselves go into those emotions.
Imagining being with the children, imagining going back to South Africa, imagining seeing our friends, imagining being normal.
- And then they said - [speaking Arabic.]
"Only you're coming.
Pierre will follow.
" - What? No! - No! - [gun cocks.]
- [Yolande shouts.]
I'm not going without him! [Yolande.]
And Pierre says, "What's going on? What's going on?" And I'm saying, "No, no! Abu Bashir said we're going together.
" Pierre! No! No! [sobs.]
No! And Pierre jumps up and he says, "I love you.
Tell the children I love them.
" [crying.]
And I want to say the same, and I can't, because he can't hear me and they push us apart, and they take me out the door.
All they said was, "Your husband's not coming.
You're going alone.
" [Al-Hamati.]
As soon as we arrived at the place where we were supposed to receive Yolande, I put on the foundation T-shirt, which had the flag of South Africa on it.
I got out of the car and was met by some armed men.
We went into a room, and they said to us, "Yolande is here, safe and sound, and she is coming out to you now.
" [door rattles.]
So the moment I saw her blue eyes, I knew that this was Yolande, because there are rarely any blue eyes in Yemen.
[laughs.]
[Yolande.]
I couldn't comprehend what was going on.
And then my eye catches a man in a green T-shirt [crying.]
with the South African flag on it.
[Al-Hamati in English.]
Yolande, let's go.
- Where? - Just come with me.
- Here we go.
You are safe now.
- Where are we going? We are going home.
[Al-Hamati in Arabic.]
Yolande got in the car.
I placed her in the front seat and as soon as she got in, she put the seat belt on.
I found it strange that a kidnapped person was still conscious of road safety procedures! [laughs.]
Anas seemed to not have realized that I understood Arabic, and the al-Qaeda guy started talking to me.
He said, "We're releasing you, and you must go and find the $3 million ransom for your husband.
Otherwise we will send his head in a box to you and you're responsible for his death.
" [beeps.]
[translator in Arabic.]
On behalf of my husband, my children and me, I'm telling the kidnappers I forgive you from my heart.
[Al-Hamati.]
We thank God, who helped us to release Yolande, and we hope that we release her husband very soon.
[man on TV.]
Pierre Korkie remains at the mercy of kidnappers who are threatening to kill him in two weeks' time if they don't get 33 million rand.
But Yolande's ordeal continues.
[Sooliman.]
We are united in faith, we are united in spirituality, for the purpose of one reason only.
To pray for divine intervention.
[man.]
Lord, we pray for Pierre Korkie.
Jesus.
I'm dying, please I'm dying more - [Yolande sniffles.]
- [man.]
Let him go.
We'll give you all the praise, all the honor, all the glory.
In Jesus' name.
[Yolande.]
Back in South Africa, it was overwhelming.
It was exhausting.
A part of me remained in Yemen.
And as the time went by, I became a hostage to all kinds of other things.
To policies, to rules, to decision makers.
People that were controlling the situation over which I still had no control.
"On the evening of 12 January, they called me to come and see the TV.
There she was, my wife! She was truly free.
Thank you, Lord, thank you! But it doesn't make the longing go away.
I miss her so much.
I miss the children so much.
Please, God, finish this for me.
" He knew that I would walk over the mountains to get him out.
[translator in Arabic.]
Please.
Let him go.
[cell phone ringing.]
[Al-Hamati.]
I was worried that now Yolande was free, what will happen if we can't get the money? [speaking Arabic.]
[Sooliman.]
We can extend the deadline, negotiate the price down and hopefully, you can keep playing for time till you can find another solution.
So Anas went back but something changed.
The body language changed, the mood changed, everything changed.
And we knew we were in serious trouble.
[man shouting in Arabic.]
[Sooliman.]
"Where's our money?" He said, "I don't have your money.
" "Maybe we should take you away, then.
" So, Anas was brave.
He said, "You can take me away.
I'm a Yemeni.
You won't get more than $50 for me.
" [man speaking Arabic.]
[Al-Hamati speaking Arabic.]
[shouts in Arabic.]
[Storm.]
My experience with al-Qaeda is that they are a death cult who will stop at nothing.
If non-Muslims beg for release of their non-Muslim family relatives who have been kidnapped, that's not something that they will consider or listen to.
It's the business that serves Islam that is important.
[Yolande.]
After my release, I wanted to know, who on Earth is Gift of the Givers? How they got involved in the negotiations, was it a government initiative? And to my shock, I found out that Gift of the Givers was a humanitarian aid organization that had a footprint in Yemen, but that the South African government, as we suspected, was not involved in negotiation.
And then suddenly, Minister Ismail Ebrahim, from South African government, gets involved.
[man.]
Well, I think it was my decision.
I thought that there should be some government ministers should go and engage the Yemenis.
I was trying also to appeal to their religious senses, you know? You are speaking to fundamental Muslims, and you are saying, "That is very un-Islamic, to kidnap people.
" [Sooliman.]
I said, "Ebrahim, I don't know who has advised you, but you're making one very big mistake, because you're gonna put the price on Pierre's head much higher.
Which government sends a minister or a deputy minister to negotiate? You don't do that publicly.
You do that privately.
" So I said, "In their mind, they're gonna think you brought the money.
And that's gonna be a disaster for us.
" Our position was clear that South Africa doesn't pay ransom.
We're not going to pay any ransom.
I went on TV to make this point.
From the 19th to the 21st of January 2014, we undertook a working visit to Sana'a, Yemen, to take up the case of Mr.
Pierre Korkie [cell phone ringing.]
a South African citizen kidnapped nine months ago.
[Sooliman.]
After Ebrahim left, not even a few hours later, al-Qaeda called Anas.
They asked him, "Where's our money?" So Anas said, "I haven't got the money.
I told you the South African government will not pay.
" He said, "You're lying.
You stole our money.
You are our next target.
We're gonna kill you.
" We reiterated that the South African government does not pay ransom under any circumstances.
It hampered the negotiations in a major way.
There was now no more direct contact between al-Qaeda and Anas.
In al-Qaeda's eyes, Anas was now a bad guy.
[cell phone chimes.]
[Sooliman.]
That Sunday was a very, very bad Sunday.
All the trust was gone.
The one element that we were hoping to preserve to save Pierre's life was trust, and the trust was gone, because they thought Anas stole the money.
We said, "Our government is giving you no money, and they're not talking to you.
" And thereafter, they sent us a picture of a bomb belt, with a wire fuse attached to it.
[Al-Hamati.]
Straight after that, I got a message from Dr.
Imtiaz Sooliman saying, "Gather your stuff, you will be on the first flight out of Yemen.
" He's never even met Pierre Korkie, but Anas Al-Hamati has been negotiating to save the captured teacher's life.
Al-Hamati had to be pulled out of Yemen just days ago after talks with the kidnappers collapsed.
He hopes to somehow earn back the trust lost, but also to return home to his own family.
[Yolande.]
This was not how we wanted his life to look like.
Fleeing from a threat and putting that over his children and family.
We entered a blackout.
No news.
No result.
No negotiation.
It was just like a pit of despair that we sank down into.
'Cause then there was no news whether Pierre was still alive or not.
There was nothing.
Silence.
[Sooliman.]
We know for a fact that if al-Qaeda executes anybody, they will announce it very loudly, very publicly.
The fact that that announcement was not made tells us, "Look, there's still a chance, but how do we open the door again?" [Yolande.]
"We left the place where Yol and I had been around half an hour to midnight, and drove for two, two and a half hours in a northwestern direction.
We arrived at a new place, at something around 2:00 a.
m.
in the morning.
There was one other hostage there.
An American.
Luke Somers.
" [gunfire.]
[explosion.]
Towards the end of April 2014, this Yemeni government declared war on al-Qaeda.
Negotiations that were possibly going on, or could go on, was now hugely complicated.
Al-Qaeda was not gonna negotiate while they were fighting war.
The hostages would be put on the back seat.
Communications broke down.
Al-Qaeda believe that the Yemeni government are puppets of America.
[shouting.]
They believe that Washington is controlling everything, even the way they have to practice Islam.
And that in itself is a declaration of war.
[Yolande.]
It was a major distraction for the Yemeni government.
It was frenzy.
It was chaos.
- [explosion.]
- [gunfire.]
[Al-Hamati.]
I love Yemen.
I've lived there all my life.
It was hard to think that I couldn't return to Yemen.
It was a nightmare.
[speaking Arabic.]
[Al-Hamati.]
I thought whatever happens, I need to return.
Anas felt that he would try to see if he could somehow enter back into the negotiation.
Restart, then pick up another thread.
But he couldn't do that if he was out of the country.
[Al-Hamati.]
When I returned to Yemen, I decided to make contact with the tribes that were within the al-Qaeda area through another tribe that I belonged to.
[speaking Arabic.]
We began the negotiations through the tribesmen, and my contact was with the tribe's sheikh.
To reach the leaders of al-Qaeda, they had to go deep into areas under the control of al-Qaeda.
These areas are very remote and the US drones are very active there.
In Yemen, they call them "the blind" because they strike without any hesitation.
So when you hear the sound of drones, that's the sound of death for many Yemenis.
The tribesmen were risking their lives with every visit.
The negotiations were extremely difficult because I was not negotiating directly.
I was relaying information from one person to another person, which is very complicated.
[cell phone ringing.]
[speaking Arabic.]
[Sooliman.]
So within a few days, the tribal leaders call him back.
They said, "Yes, Pierre is alive.
" They said, "He is deaf.
" And nobody knows that, 'cause up to that point we never announced that Pierre was deaf.
He said, "Look, Pierre is a very sick man.
Please do us a favor and see what you can do.
" The tribal leaders spoke again and then they called us.
They said, "Look, this is an internal matter.
We'll sort it out the tribal way.
That's what we wanted.
And you give us a facilitation fee.
" So we ask, "What is facilitation fee?" They said, "It's money you pay us in case something happens to us as tribal leaders and a drone hits us on the way to get Pierre released.
Then our families are looked after.
" It was around $200,000.
Then it dropped to 130 and eventually it dropped to 110.
[barking.]
I went back to Yolande.
I said, "Yolande, can you raise this money?" How much? [Sooliman.]
How you find the money, really, I don't want to know.
Whether the government gives it to you, whether the Mafia gives it to you.
She said, "Look, I'll make some phone calls.
I don't know.
" [Yolande.]
There was a just amazing group of people that jumped up and said, "Don't worry, Yolande, we're going to manage and organize this fundraising project for Pierre.
" We're learning about a failed rescue attempt by US Special Forces to free an American being held hostage by al-Qaeda in Yemen.
[Yolande.]
Suddenly, a news report surfaces that the American SEALs went in to do a rescue attempt to release Luke Somers.
[reporter.]
The Americans took the al-Qaeda captors by surprise, rapidly killed all seven and rescued eight hostages.
But Luke Somers wasn't there.
[Yolande.]
They were talking about foreign hostages that had been released with the raid.
There was a little bit of hope.
Maybe Pierre had been released when they went in.
[in Arabic.]
We warn Obama and the US government against proceeding with any other follies.
[Al-Hamati.]
We were worried that al-Qaeda might change their mind after the American raid, and that's why we needed to have the money immediately, to close the deal as soon as possible before another American attack and before al-Qaeda could change their mind.
At that time, we received approval from al-Qaeda to release Pierre.
We only needed to hand the money to the tribesmen.
[Yolande.]
They wanted the hard cash.
Cash in a bag somewhere in the middle of somewhere in Yemen, under a tree where nobody had really control over.
Was it gonna get to the right hands? It was a gamble.
It was a big gamble.
[Al-Hamati.]
My job was to make a call to release the money as soon as I received Pierre.
The tribesmen would receive it immediately.
The handover would be performed in a house.
All the delegates would be armed, but we had no other option.
We would get Pierre, and they would get the money, then we'd each go our separate ways.
[Yolande.]
We were scared.
We were nervous.
We were constantly wondering, "What is gonna happen?" Were we gonna actually get to the end of this now? I said, "Yolande, there are no guarantees.
There's no guarantee we can bring Pierre home alive.
You need to understand that.
" [Yolande stammering.]
I was very deeply concerned.
I was not sleeping anymore.
I was very stressed out on how Pierre was feeling.
[Sooliman.]
Anas said, "The tribal leaders are saying it's too dangerous to move across the country now.
" I told Anas, "I know the bombs are falling everywhere.
I know everything is tense.
I know al-Qaeda is is you know, is angry.
But we have to do it.
We have no choice.
" He spoke to them.
They got back to him.
They said, "Yes.
Tomorrow morning between 6:00 and 7:00 they will make the attempt to go and release Pierre Korkie.
" [Al-Hamati.]
I arrived in Aden.
Everything was ready as planned.
I was also in contact with Yolande, and I was messaging her through WhatsApp.
She told me she was happy that her husband was getting out and that she wanted to thank me.
I told her, "Don't thank me now.
Thank me when we are done.
" At 5:59 exactly, I said, "Yolande, the waiting is over.
" [Yolande.]
For the first time, I'm trying to think, "What would it be like if Pierre was back?" - [dog barking.]
- [gunshots.]
At 7:00, I get a call, and I know I know something's wrong.
[cell phone chimes.]
[Al-Hamati.]
I got a message from the tribesmen asking me, "Are you with the Americans?" I was confused by this message.
What had happened? After that, I got a message from the leader of the tribe who was with me in the same hotel.
He was also waiting for the tribesmen.
He told me, "It's a catastrophe!" The Pentagon says a team of about three dozen commandos, mostly from SEAL Team 6, tried to rescue American photojournalist Luke Somers and South African hostage Pierre Korkie from their captors.
Americans went in to rescue the American hostage, and something went wrong.
And al-Qaeda shot Pierre.
[Al-Hamati.]
I looked at the message, but I didn't believe my eyes.
Pierre has been killed? I didn't believe it.
It was impossible.
I was just a matter of hours away from setting him free.
[woman on TV.]
In a high stakes mission, senior administration officials say Navy SEALs landed about two miles from their target, secretly approaching a cluster of buildings in central Yemen.
But their cover was blown, sparking a firefight and giving the captors time to shoot Somers and South African hostage Pierre Korkie.
It ended there.
[woman on TV.]
South African teacher Pierre Korkie was just hours away from being released from his al-Qaeda captors when he was killed in the failed mission to rescue American photojournalist Luke Somers.
Today, the US ambassador to South Africa told the Associated Press the US government was unaware of those negotiations, and the Obama administration is defending its decision to launch the rescue effort.
We did not know who the other hostage was.
We did not know what country they were from.
There wouldn't have been a way to It wouldn't have made sense, in fact, for us to reach out to the South African government.
We didn't have information at the time that led us to believe there was The other individual was from South Africa.
Apparently, Pierre was already unconscious when they got to him.
He never regained consciousness again.
After several surgical procedures, they But they stabilized him, and they took him in the helicopter, but in the helicopter, he apparently Pierre breathed his last He didn't make it out to the ship.
[man.]
How come you didn't know who the other hostage was there? If you knew that one of them was Mr.
Somers, why didn't you know who the other one was? That's just not a level of detail I can get into, Matt.
A person's life could have been saved.
Pierre's life was in my hands, and I could have saved him.
I needed to build a new life outside of Yemen.
In August 2015, I arrived in South Africa and began my life anew.
It was my only choice.
Going home is not an option.
If I could go back in time, I wouldn't have done anything differently.
I have no regrets.
I'm sure I did the right thing.
[Yolande.]
The last memory and the last words that I heard from Pierre was, "I love you.
And tell the children I love them.
" [camera shutters clicking.]
We have intense relief that he has come back, that he has been returned to us.
And we wish to express our gratefulness to the USA for bringing his remains home.
This is God's will.
I heard myself saying, "Today, we choose to forgive.
We choose love over hatred.
" [Sooliman.]
Americans went in, she forgave them.
Al-Qaeda took her captive and her husband captive, she forgave them.
Which shows the quality of this woman, very spiritual, very strong.
A believing person who had compassion in the heart, you know, and that is Yolande Korkie.
Afterwards, people have really kept on asking me, "Well, do you still feel the same? You said that you and the children chose to forgive.
" And the decision to forgive has stayed the same, and it will stay the same a thousand times over.
It's a beautiful gift.
And choosing love over hatred is really important.
Love over evil.
That's really important in this age that we're living in.
[somber music playing.]
My name is Yolande Korkie.
My husband and I are from South Africa.
My husband is a teacher.
We came to Yemen in 2009 to teach Yemeni people English language.
[Yolande Korkie.]
There's not a place in the world which we can call a place that's the safest place in the world to be.
Somehow, when you're inside of a difficult situation, there's something else keeping you there.
You change your boundaries of what's normal.
[siren wailing.]
God is good if it goes well with us.
But we found out that that's not true.
God is good even if it doesn't go well with us.
[chanting.]
- [explosion.]
- [gunfire.]
Lord, forgive them.
Because they don't know what they're doing.
Pierre was older.
He was wiser.
He had a peacefulness exuding from him, which just really attracted me.
There was a beautiful person on the inside, which I just really, really fell in love with.
Pierre had a passion for serving poor people, and there was an invitation to go and visit a poor Middle Eastern country.
And we wanted to see what it was like to explore new things in life.
It was a new adventure.
Bye! Bye! We read up a little bit about Yemen, but we didn't really understand the culture.
We didn't really understand how poor Yemen was.
The poverty really touched our hearts.
Pierre was going to teach full-time.
We helped a little bit at the hospitals.
We kept on just reaching out to the poor, wherever they needed and what they needed.
We started just opening up our home and inviting people and eating meals with them, and dipping that hand into the same bowl and sharing life.
It was safe.
It was welcoming.
[man on TV.]
Something enormously important is happening half a world away from us tonight.
The nation of Egypt is probably changing forever, and it may not stop there.
What appears to be a revolution is underway, against the almost 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak.
[shouting.]
[Yolande.]
When the Arab Spring erupted in Tunis and then it spilled over to Egypt, it was like watching a tsunami coming closer.
You could see something was coming and we were all like, "Is it gonna hit Yemen? Is it gonna come to Yemen?" They kept on saying, "Insha'Allah, it won't come to us.
Insha'Allah, it will be okay.
" [siren wailing.]
[woman on TV.]
In Yemen's capital, dozens killed and injured in a suicide blast, al-Qaeda believed to be behind it.
[siren wailing.]
[Yolande.]
The whole atmosphere in Yemen started to change.
The very fragile governmental system started to fall apart, and as it was falling apart, al-Qaeda started moving in on the sideline.
A distrust settled amongst the people.
The bustle and the hustle sort of slowly died down.
Petrol wasn't available.
Goods were not coming into towns.
The suffering that they'd been going through because of the poverty was completely out of control.
So wherever there was help needed, we were now in a position to give a hand.
We knew that there were risks in Yemen and tried to prepare ourselves and our children.
We changed the routines that we were adhering to.
We didn't keep to the same roads.
Our normal was changing without us noticing it.
[man.]
When it comes to kidnappings, al-Qaeda will have to decide which person is the most important to kidnap and when.
We have to be patient.
They have to consider when is the best time to hit and to make a move.
They know when they're coming and when they're leaving.
They know they're gonna get them anytime they want.
We basically placed an invisible cage over them.
[man on TV.]
Stability in Yemen is critical for the Middle East and the United States.
Yemen borders Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer.
And Yemen is home to a powerful al-Qaeda cell.
[gunshots firing on video.]
[Morten Storm.]
There is only one truth.
Jihad must be carried out to spread Islam.
So whoever is trying to prevent that happening has to be killed.
Islam was spread with the sword and that was very attractive to me.
[chanting.]
[Yolande.]
As the revolution picked up, governments were telling their citizens in Yemen, "It's time to leave.
" We'd become so entrenched with the people that leaving was not an option.
So it was almost like we were walking against the traffic.
[man on TV.]
US Special Operations Forces on the ground in Yemen are coordinating air strikes against al-Qaeda targets.
Those attacks from American jets and unmanned drones, armed with hellfire missiles, have increased over the past month as political violence has weakened the Yemeni government.
[Yolande.]
It became a new lifestyle.
It became normal to hear fighter jets going over at 10:00 in the morning when you're hanging up your washing.
By February in 2013, Pierre's father became ill, who lived in Port Elizabeth in South Africa.
And we had an urge to just spend time with him.
And by the 20th of May, Pierre's father passes away.
On Monday, the passports arrive in Taiz, and the visas have been granted.
We will go collect them the afternoon.
Our children, Peter and Lisa, they were gonna watch TV.
There was no problem leaving them.
We greeted the guard, and he wasn't making eye contact that day for some reason.
[engine starts.]
We were gonna be maybe, at the most, an hour.
And off we went.
[in Arabic.]
They're on their way.
[speaking Arabic.]
[Yolande.]
Because of the revolution, there were checkpoints going up like mushrooms.
The army was very active in that time, and we were not concerned if a new checkpoint arose because we imagined it was the army just doing their job.
[rifle firing.]
[shouting.]
Pierre! Pierre! No! No! No! [screaming.]
Everything really just happened in a second.
[music over dialogue.]
This is not happening.
This is not happening.
[Yolande screams.]
Those split seconds were just life-changing.
[tires screeching.]
We didn't know where we were going.
We had no control.
I looked up into the rear mirror, and there I see beloved Taiz just slipping out of reach.
The terrain that we were in was just unimaginable.
We kept asking ourselves, "Are we really still in Yemen? Is it possible?" There was nothing.
No house.
No tree.
No blades of grass, no children, no animals.
Nothing.
And the journey just stretches on and on and on.
[man chanting.]
We tried to figure out what tribe is this that we're dealing with.
They put in a CD and the music blasted through the car.
Just shouting out, asking the question, "Do you know who we are? Do you know who we are? We are al-Qaeda.
" [music continues playing.]
And they ventured into the outskirts of a village.
[speaking Arabic.]
[speaking Arabic.]
[Yolande.]
We didn't know if they were gonna kill us or they were gonna hand us over.
[Yolande and Pierre breathing heavily.]
[Yolande gasps.]
Pierre.
[gate closes.]
And then we overhear a two-way radio.
[man speaking Arabic.]
Do you have the hostages? [Yolande.]
The voice that's coming across that radio [man speaks Arabic.]
Have they been delivered to you? just rips through us.
Taiz is dangerous now.
It's crawling with police looking for them.
[Yolande.]
We recognize it as our guard's voice, Ali, who we had in Taiz.
Ali had betrayed us.
[indistinct chatter on radio.]
And as that thought comes to us, we we simultaneously said, "The children.
" Did he betray us and them, or did he just betray us? Were they kidnapped as well? [in Arabic.]
Pierre Korkie was a volunteer teacher.
He taught a group of students in the afternoon.
Pierre was a really awesome person and very nice, too.
His way of teaching was unique.
[shouting.]
An anonymous gang has kidnapped two foreigners.
Nobody knows why they were kidnapped.
[man speaking Arabic.]
I just couldn't ignore this story.
I decided I had to do something if I could.
It was something I felt very deeply about.
I saw how corruption and poverty contributed to the destruction of my country.
I used to be a journalist, so I knew every aspect of the situation in Yemen.
I knew that if I didn't try to help release them, then no one would.
[man.]
I had just returned from Syria, set up a hospital there and helped in the war zone.
And when I got to South Africa, I got a call from Anas, who is my representative in Yemen.
Anas is an Arab.
Yemen is a country that's very hospitable.
Anas was feeling very offended that Arab people in Yemen had captured two South Africans.
[Anas al-Hamati.]
Our organization, Gift of the Givers, began in Yemen in 2012, and we still have many projects there.
Our aim is to provide food and clean water.
These are the things most lacking in Yemen.
I rang Dr.
Imtiaz Sooliman.
I told him the news about the kidnapping of two South Africans in Yemen and I asked him if there was anything we could do.
In 2009, I got married and started my family.
I had simple dreams to have a normal life and to make a happy family.
My wife Fadia is very patient.
She always encourages me to do the right thing.
But she was not aware of just how risky this might be.
I had no skills at all in tracking or negotiation.
I visited the places where Yolande and Pierre used to work.
I visited their friends and met their work colleagues.
I kept asking them whether they had heard anything.
I also met the local tribesmen.
These tribes have a strong relationship with al-Qaeda, even though they are not part of the organization.
Every person I met, I gave him my business card.
[Yolande.]
There was a couple of things that we identified we would need to survive, emotionally, spiritually, physically.
There are some things that one can't live without.
And so we decided pen and paper was really important for both of us to journal.
Our thoughts and our conversations would juggle between South Africa, missing the outside spaces, missing being outside.
We were missing smelling the rain, being in nature, being with our friends.
And of course, missing the children was torture.
It was like being in a torture chamber, day after day.
There was about a lapse of a week or ten days that there was no television news coming in.
[shouting in Arabic.]
[Yolande.]
And then suddenly, one day, they were just elated.
They were shouting, "Allah Akbar.
" And they were very happy because an American had been kidnapped from Sana'a.
[Storm.]
Al-Qaeda considers America to be the new dictators, the world dictators.
And they're the ones who interfere in the affairs of the Muslims.
So, for them, the most valuable people that they can kidnap will be American citizens.
[Yolande.]
We thought, "The poor guy.
This young man had now also fallen prey to the same circumstances that we were in.
" But we never imagined that our fates would intertwine in the bizarre way that it did.
[Al-Hamati.]
Seven months after the kidnapping of Yolanda and Pierre, I received a phone call from Abyan Province.
[cell phone ringing.]
They said, "We have Yolande and her husband and if you want to negotiate, come and visit us in Abyan.
Call us on this number.
" [speaking Arabic.]
I didn't know if they were tribesmen or al-Qaeda.
[Imtiaz Sooliman.]
Anas asked me, "What do you think I should do? Should I go?" I said, "What is your thinking?" He said, "I want to go.
" I said, "For seven months what do you think we've been doing all this time? Have we not been waiting for this moment?" [Al-Hamati.]
I told him, "If anything bad happens to me, please take care of my family, because I don't know what these people want.
" The first meeting was on the side of the road.
Some men arrived armed to the teeth.
They weren't tribesmen.
When I met them, I knew they were al-Qaeda.
I felt trouble had just begun.
Their first words were, "We want $100,000 just to start talking.
" [Storm.]
It's a massive, huge business for al-Qaeda and for Islamic organizations to kidnap people.
When I was working for them, it would be an easy income for al-Qaeda.
[Al-Hamati.]
It was a quick meeting.
All they demanded was the money.
You must be patient and honest when you're dealing with al-Qaeda.
If they have any doubt about you, they will assassinate you without hesitation.
[chattering.]
Three days later, I received a call.
[cell phone ringing.]
[Sooliman.]
They said, "Come again to a certain point.
" They didn't tell him why.
They didn't tell him for what reason.
Is he coming because they're gonna kill him? Or they're coming to discuss further? Or is there gonna be another development? [horn honking.]
[in Arabic.]
We started negotiation, and they said they can free the hostages now [speaking Arabic.]
but they need the ransom amount of $3 million.
I knew from the beginning that this amount of money is exaggerated especially as they are South Africans and not Americans.
Then I had an idea.
I said, "If you give me Yolande, we will raise the money, and I will deliver it to you.
You have my guarantee.
I am sure that whenever you need me, you know how to get me.
" They started looking at each other, which meant they were thinking about my words.
My heart was beating very fast, and I was afraid that they will accept my offer.
Where are we going to get $3 million? [stammering.]
[Yolande.]
When Pierre was four years old, he had a viral infection, which rendered him deaf in his left ear.
And as time went by, he became really sick.
He woke up one morning, and he was completely deaf.
He was There was no sound.
He woke me with a little note.
And it said "I miss you.
" I just wrapped myself around him because there was no no way that he could hear that I wanted to say I love him.
I just hoped that in every nerve ending and with every tear and every smile that we could give between the two of us, that he would understand that I loved him, and I was there.
I would be there with him every step of this way.
[shushing.]
[men speaking Arabic.]
[Yolande.]
Around the first of January, on New Year, there's a scurry and a cleaning up next door.
The guards are getting ready.
Somebody important's coming.
And they say Abu Basir is there to see us.
[inaudible.]
We were thinking, "Who do we think this is? What is going on?" [Storm.]
In this picture here, we have Nasser al-Wuhayshi, aka Abu Basir.
I met him in 2012.
He was, at that time, the leader of al-Qaeda AQAP in the Arabian Peninsula.
He was Osama bin Laden's personal secretary in Afghanistan.
He's basically the charisma of al-Qaeda in the entire Arabian Peninsula.
He was very soft and friendly to his followers and harsh with the disbelievers and enemies.
[Yolande.]
Initially, because we didn't know who he was, we're confused.
Pierre and I are confused.
But because of the paraphernalia that went around his visit, we realized that he was an important person, that he had some information and knowledge, and we wanted to know where our children were and what was going on.
We kept asking, and he finally came back with an answer.
And he said they left Yemen a couple of days after our kidnapping, accompanied by the South African ambassador.
We were just The relief was immense.
And then he tells us that we will be going home in 24 hours.
[cell phone ringing.]
[Al-Hamati.]
I received a call at 11 a.
m.
on the 9th of January.
They said, "Yolande will be released, and we will call after a short while.
" I rang my wife and told her that I am going on a very dangerous trip to release a hostage in Abyan in a dangerous place.
I told her, "These could be my last words to you, but I'm not backing down.
" Driving through those areas, you are very likely to come across people who might start shooting at you.
They might stop you, hijack your car, rob or kill you.
Anything is possible.
The risk was enormous, and I couldn't think about anything.
I sat in silence wondering, "What will happen next?" [knocking on door.]
[Yolande.]
At 3:00 a.
m.
, they knocked us up.
[yells.]
The guard entered and he said, "Get dressed.
You're leaving.
" I grabbed my journals.
Pierre grabs his journals.
And for the first time, we let ourselves go into those emotions.
Imagining being with the children, imagining going back to South Africa, imagining seeing our friends, imagining being normal.
- And then they said - [speaking Arabic.]
"Only you're coming.
Pierre will follow.
" - What? No! - No! - [gun cocks.]
- [Yolande shouts.]
I'm not going without him! [Yolande.]
And Pierre says, "What's going on? What's going on?" And I'm saying, "No, no! Abu Bashir said we're going together.
" Pierre! No! No! [sobs.]
No! And Pierre jumps up and he says, "I love you.
Tell the children I love them.
" [crying.]
And I want to say the same, and I can't, because he can't hear me and they push us apart, and they take me out the door.
All they said was, "Your husband's not coming.
You're going alone.
" [Al-Hamati.]
As soon as we arrived at the place where we were supposed to receive Yolande, I put on the foundation T-shirt, which had the flag of South Africa on it.
I got out of the car and was met by some armed men.
We went into a room, and they said to us, "Yolande is here, safe and sound, and she is coming out to you now.
" [door rattles.]
So the moment I saw her blue eyes, I knew that this was Yolande, because there are rarely any blue eyes in Yemen.
[laughs.]
[Yolande.]
I couldn't comprehend what was going on.
And then my eye catches a man in a green T-shirt [crying.]
with the South African flag on it.
[Al-Hamati in English.]
Yolande, let's go.
- Where? - Just come with me.
- Here we go.
You are safe now.
- Where are we going? We are going home.
[Al-Hamati in Arabic.]
Yolande got in the car.
I placed her in the front seat and as soon as she got in, she put the seat belt on.
I found it strange that a kidnapped person was still conscious of road safety procedures! [laughs.]
Anas seemed to not have realized that I understood Arabic, and the al-Qaeda guy started talking to me.
He said, "We're releasing you, and you must go and find the $3 million ransom for your husband.
Otherwise we will send his head in a box to you and you're responsible for his death.
" [beeps.]
[translator in Arabic.]
On behalf of my husband, my children and me, I'm telling the kidnappers I forgive you from my heart.
[Al-Hamati.]
We thank God, who helped us to release Yolande, and we hope that we release her husband very soon.
[man on TV.]
Pierre Korkie remains at the mercy of kidnappers who are threatening to kill him in two weeks' time if they don't get 33 million rand.
But Yolande's ordeal continues.
[Sooliman.]
We are united in faith, we are united in spirituality, for the purpose of one reason only.
To pray for divine intervention.
[man.]
Lord, we pray for Pierre Korkie.
Jesus.
I'm dying, please I'm dying more - [Yolande sniffles.]
- [man.]
Let him go.
We'll give you all the praise, all the honor, all the glory.
In Jesus' name.
[Yolande.]
Back in South Africa, it was overwhelming.
It was exhausting.
A part of me remained in Yemen.
And as the time went by, I became a hostage to all kinds of other things.
To policies, to rules, to decision makers.
People that were controlling the situation over which I still had no control.
"On the evening of 12 January, they called me to come and see the TV.
There she was, my wife! She was truly free.
Thank you, Lord, thank you! But it doesn't make the longing go away.
I miss her so much.
I miss the children so much.
Please, God, finish this for me.
" He knew that I would walk over the mountains to get him out.
[translator in Arabic.]
Please.
Let him go.
[cell phone ringing.]
[Al-Hamati.]
I was worried that now Yolande was free, what will happen if we can't get the money? [speaking Arabic.]
[Sooliman.]
We can extend the deadline, negotiate the price down and hopefully, you can keep playing for time till you can find another solution.
So Anas went back but something changed.
The body language changed, the mood changed, everything changed.
And we knew we were in serious trouble.
[man shouting in Arabic.]
[Sooliman.]
"Where's our money?" He said, "I don't have your money.
" "Maybe we should take you away, then.
" So, Anas was brave.
He said, "You can take me away.
I'm a Yemeni.
You won't get more than $50 for me.
" [man speaking Arabic.]
[Al-Hamati speaking Arabic.]
[shouts in Arabic.]
[Storm.]
My experience with al-Qaeda is that they are a death cult who will stop at nothing.
If non-Muslims beg for release of their non-Muslim family relatives who have been kidnapped, that's not something that they will consider or listen to.
It's the business that serves Islam that is important.
[Yolande.]
After my release, I wanted to know, who on Earth is Gift of the Givers? How they got involved in the negotiations, was it a government initiative? And to my shock, I found out that Gift of the Givers was a humanitarian aid organization that had a footprint in Yemen, but that the South African government, as we suspected, was not involved in negotiation.
And then suddenly, Minister Ismail Ebrahim, from South African government, gets involved.
[man.]
Well, I think it was my decision.
I thought that there should be some government ministers should go and engage the Yemenis.
I was trying also to appeal to their religious senses, you know? You are speaking to fundamental Muslims, and you are saying, "That is very un-Islamic, to kidnap people.
" [Sooliman.]
I said, "Ebrahim, I don't know who has advised you, but you're making one very big mistake, because you're gonna put the price on Pierre's head much higher.
Which government sends a minister or a deputy minister to negotiate? You don't do that publicly.
You do that privately.
" So I said, "In their mind, they're gonna think you brought the money.
And that's gonna be a disaster for us.
" Our position was clear that South Africa doesn't pay ransom.
We're not going to pay any ransom.
I went on TV to make this point.
From the 19th to the 21st of January 2014, we undertook a working visit to Sana'a, Yemen, to take up the case of Mr.
Pierre Korkie [cell phone ringing.]
a South African citizen kidnapped nine months ago.
[Sooliman.]
After Ebrahim left, not even a few hours later, al-Qaeda called Anas.
They asked him, "Where's our money?" So Anas said, "I haven't got the money.
I told you the South African government will not pay.
" He said, "You're lying.
You stole our money.
You are our next target.
We're gonna kill you.
" We reiterated that the South African government does not pay ransom under any circumstances.
It hampered the negotiations in a major way.
There was now no more direct contact between al-Qaeda and Anas.
In al-Qaeda's eyes, Anas was now a bad guy.
[cell phone chimes.]
[Sooliman.]
That Sunday was a very, very bad Sunday.
All the trust was gone.
The one element that we were hoping to preserve to save Pierre's life was trust, and the trust was gone, because they thought Anas stole the money.
We said, "Our government is giving you no money, and they're not talking to you.
" And thereafter, they sent us a picture of a bomb belt, with a wire fuse attached to it.
[Al-Hamati.]
Straight after that, I got a message from Dr.
Imtiaz Sooliman saying, "Gather your stuff, you will be on the first flight out of Yemen.
" He's never even met Pierre Korkie, but Anas Al-Hamati has been negotiating to save the captured teacher's life.
Al-Hamati had to be pulled out of Yemen just days ago after talks with the kidnappers collapsed.
He hopes to somehow earn back the trust lost, but also to return home to his own family.
[Yolande.]
This was not how we wanted his life to look like.
Fleeing from a threat and putting that over his children and family.
We entered a blackout.
No news.
No result.
No negotiation.
It was just like a pit of despair that we sank down into.
'Cause then there was no news whether Pierre was still alive or not.
There was nothing.
Silence.
[Sooliman.]
We know for a fact that if al-Qaeda executes anybody, they will announce it very loudly, very publicly.
The fact that that announcement was not made tells us, "Look, there's still a chance, but how do we open the door again?" [Yolande.]
"We left the place where Yol and I had been around half an hour to midnight, and drove for two, two and a half hours in a northwestern direction.
We arrived at a new place, at something around 2:00 a.
m.
in the morning.
There was one other hostage there.
An American.
Luke Somers.
" [gunfire.]
[explosion.]
Towards the end of April 2014, this Yemeni government declared war on al-Qaeda.
Negotiations that were possibly going on, or could go on, was now hugely complicated.
Al-Qaeda was not gonna negotiate while they were fighting war.
The hostages would be put on the back seat.
Communications broke down.
Al-Qaeda believe that the Yemeni government are puppets of America.
[shouting.]
They believe that Washington is controlling everything, even the way they have to practice Islam.
And that in itself is a declaration of war.
[Yolande.]
It was a major distraction for the Yemeni government.
It was frenzy.
It was chaos.
- [explosion.]
- [gunfire.]
[Al-Hamati.]
I love Yemen.
I've lived there all my life.
It was hard to think that I couldn't return to Yemen.
It was a nightmare.
[speaking Arabic.]
[Al-Hamati.]
I thought whatever happens, I need to return.
Anas felt that he would try to see if he could somehow enter back into the negotiation.
Restart, then pick up another thread.
But he couldn't do that if he was out of the country.
[Al-Hamati.]
When I returned to Yemen, I decided to make contact with the tribes that were within the al-Qaeda area through another tribe that I belonged to.
[speaking Arabic.]
We began the negotiations through the tribesmen, and my contact was with the tribe's sheikh.
To reach the leaders of al-Qaeda, they had to go deep into areas under the control of al-Qaeda.
These areas are very remote and the US drones are very active there.
In Yemen, they call them "the blind" because they strike without any hesitation.
So when you hear the sound of drones, that's the sound of death for many Yemenis.
The tribesmen were risking their lives with every visit.
The negotiations were extremely difficult because I was not negotiating directly.
I was relaying information from one person to another person, which is very complicated.
[cell phone ringing.]
[speaking Arabic.]
[Sooliman.]
So within a few days, the tribal leaders call him back.
They said, "Yes, Pierre is alive.
" They said, "He is deaf.
" And nobody knows that, 'cause up to that point we never announced that Pierre was deaf.
He said, "Look, Pierre is a very sick man.
Please do us a favor and see what you can do.
" The tribal leaders spoke again and then they called us.
They said, "Look, this is an internal matter.
We'll sort it out the tribal way.
That's what we wanted.
And you give us a facilitation fee.
" So we ask, "What is facilitation fee?" They said, "It's money you pay us in case something happens to us as tribal leaders and a drone hits us on the way to get Pierre released.
Then our families are looked after.
" It was around $200,000.
Then it dropped to 130 and eventually it dropped to 110.
[barking.]
I went back to Yolande.
I said, "Yolande, can you raise this money?" How much? [Sooliman.]
How you find the money, really, I don't want to know.
Whether the government gives it to you, whether the Mafia gives it to you.
She said, "Look, I'll make some phone calls.
I don't know.
" [Yolande.]
There was a just amazing group of people that jumped up and said, "Don't worry, Yolande, we're going to manage and organize this fundraising project for Pierre.
" We're learning about a failed rescue attempt by US Special Forces to free an American being held hostage by al-Qaeda in Yemen.
[Yolande.]
Suddenly, a news report surfaces that the American SEALs went in to do a rescue attempt to release Luke Somers.
[reporter.]
The Americans took the al-Qaeda captors by surprise, rapidly killed all seven and rescued eight hostages.
But Luke Somers wasn't there.
[Yolande.]
They were talking about foreign hostages that had been released with the raid.
There was a little bit of hope.
Maybe Pierre had been released when they went in.
[in Arabic.]
We warn Obama and the US government against proceeding with any other follies.
[Al-Hamati.]
We were worried that al-Qaeda might change their mind after the American raid, and that's why we needed to have the money immediately, to close the deal as soon as possible before another American attack and before al-Qaeda could change their mind.
At that time, we received approval from al-Qaeda to release Pierre.
We only needed to hand the money to the tribesmen.
[Yolande.]
They wanted the hard cash.
Cash in a bag somewhere in the middle of somewhere in Yemen, under a tree where nobody had really control over.
Was it gonna get to the right hands? It was a gamble.
It was a big gamble.
[Al-Hamati.]
My job was to make a call to release the money as soon as I received Pierre.
The tribesmen would receive it immediately.
The handover would be performed in a house.
All the delegates would be armed, but we had no other option.
We would get Pierre, and they would get the money, then we'd each go our separate ways.
[Yolande.]
We were scared.
We were nervous.
We were constantly wondering, "What is gonna happen?" Were we gonna actually get to the end of this now? I said, "Yolande, there are no guarantees.
There's no guarantee we can bring Pierre home alive.
You need to understand that.
" [Yolande stammering.]
I was very deeply concerned.
I was not sleeping anymore.
I was very stressed out on how Pierre was feeling.
[Sooliman.]
Anas said, "The tribal leaders are saying it's too dangerous to move across the country now.
" I told Anas, "I know the bombs are falling everywhere.
I know everything is tense.
I know al-Qaeda is is you know, is angry.
But we have to do it.
We have no choice.
" He spoke to them.
They got back to him.
They said, "Yes.
Tomorrow morning between 6:00 and 7:00 they will make the attempt to go and release Pierre Korkie.
" [Al-Hamati.]
I arrived in Aden.
Everything was ready as planned.
I was also in contact with Yolande, and I was messaging her through WhatsApp.
She told me she was happy that her husband was getting out and that she wanted to thank me.
I told her, "Don't thank me now.
Thank me when we are done.
" At 5:59 exactly, I said, "Yolande, the waiting is over.
" [Yolande.]
For the first time, I'm trying to think, "What would it be like if Pierre was back?" - [dog barking.]
- [gunshots.]
At 7:00, I get a call, and I know I know something's wrong.
[cell phone chimes.]
[Al-Hamati.]
I got a message from the tribesmen asking me, "Are you with the Americans?" I was confused by this message.
What had happened? After that, I got a message from the leader of the tribe who was with me in the same hotel.
He was also waiting for the tribesmen.
He told me, "It's a catastrophe!" The Pentagon says a team of about three dozen commandos, mostly from SEAL Team 6, tried to rescue American photojournalist Luke Somers and South African hostage Pierre Korkie from their captors.
Americans went in to rescue the American hostage, and something went wrong.
And al-Qaeda shot Pierre.
[Al-Hamati.]
I looked at the message, but I didn't believe my eyes.
Pierre has been killed? I didn't believe it.
It was impossible.
I was just a matter of hours away from setting him free.
[woman on TV.]
In a high stakes mission, senior administration officials say Navy SEALs landed about two miles from their target, secretly approaching a cluster of buildings in central Yemen.
But their cover was blown, sparking a firefight and giving the captors time to shoot Somers and South African hostage Pierre Korkie.
It ended there.
[woman on TV.]
South African teacher Pierre Korkie was just hours away from being released from his al-Qaeda captors when he was killed in the failed mission to rescue American photojournalist Luke Somers.
Today, the US ambassador to South Africa told the Associated Press the US government was unaware of those negotiations, and the Obama administration is defending its decision to launch the rescue effort.
We did not know who the other hostage was.
We did not know what country they were from.
There wouldn't have been a way to It wouldn't have made sense, in fact, for us to reach out to the South African government.
We didn't have information at the time that led us to believe there was The other individual was from South Africa.
Apparently, Pierre was already unconscious when they got to him.
He never regained consciousness again.
After several surgical procedures, they But they stabilized him, and they took him in the helicopter, but in the helicopter, he apparently Pierre breathed his last He didn't make it out to the ship.
[man.]
How come you didn't know who the other hostage was there? If you knew that one of them was Mr.
Somers, why didn't you know who the other one was? That's just not a level of detail I can get into, Matt.
A person's life could have been saved.
Pierre's life was in my hands, and I could have saved him.
I needed to build a new life outside of Yemen.
In August 2015, I arrived in South Africa and began my life anew.
It was my only choice.
Going home is not an option.
If I could go back in time, I wouldn't have done anything differently.
I have no regrets.
I'm sure I did the right thing.
[Yolande.]
The last memory and the last words that I heard from Pierre was, "I love you.
And tell the children I love them.
" [camera shutters clicking.]
We have intense relief that he has come back, that he has been returned to us.
And we wish to express our gratefulness to the USA for bringing his remains home.
This is God's will.
I heard myself saying, "Today, we choose to forgive.
We choose love over hatred.
" [Sooliman.]
Americans went in, she forgave them.
Al-Qaeda took her captive and her husband captive, she forgave them.
Which shows the quality of this woman, very spiritual, very strong.
A believing person who had compassion in the heart, you know, and that is Yolande Korkie.
Afterwards, people have really kept on asking me, "Well, do you still feel the same? You said that you and the children chose to forgive.
" And the decision to forgive has stayed the same, and it will stay the same a thousand times over.
It's a beautiful gift.
And choosing love over hatred is really important.
Love over evil.
That's really important in this age that we're living in.
[somber music playing.]