The humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers said that it had received proof on Tuesday that kidnapped South African photojournalist Shiraaz Mohamed is still alive.
It has been a year to the day since he was captured in Syria while making his way back to the Turkish border after accompanying the Gift of the Givers on a mission.
The two drivers who were captured with him were released immediately.
Gift of the Givers founder, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, said that they had received a message late on Monday night confirming that Shiraz was alive.
He said the proof was contained in ten very personal questions that were sent to his captors in a series of communications earlier this month.
Sooliman said only Shiraz would have known the answers to the questions and that he has to be alive to do that.
"Those ten answers came back absolutely perfectly, the family was ecstatic and they said there was no way anybody could have done that except for Shiraaz which proves that he is alive. The questions were sent on the second of January and we got the response on Monday night. Somewhere between the second and the eighth those questions were answered, we can confirm that Shiraaz is alive," he said.
Meanwhile, Sooliman said that they had been told by various sources last September already that Shiraaz was still alive.
He said it is strange that after a year, there had been no ransom demand made by his captors.
"That is the most strangest thing (sic), because in the whole period nobody has asked for ransom, nobody has had any demands, nobody said why they took him and nobody said he is a spy and they want to kill him. There are many reasons why this does not make any sense and right up until now when we finally got the proof of life, we now hope that this group will tell us exactly why they took Shiraaz and what they want. That will be the next phase," Sooliman said.
