SANA’A – A source at the Yemeni Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Mahdi Mohammed Qasim Al-Sheikh and Nasser Morshed Ghalab Al-Helali, two Yemeni students arrested April 4 by security forces on a university campus near the city of Latakia, Syria, have been released.

The students were detained for several months after the uprising currently engulfing the country.

Their families held several protests, the last of which was Tuesday in front of the Syrian embassy in Sana’a, to demand their release.

Those participating in the protest chanted slogans expressing anger and condemning the detention of the students. They also denounced the Yemeni government’s slow response.

A statement issued by the protesters said they resorted to staging a sit-in in front of the Syrian embassy after several failed attempts to contact Yemeni officials in the ministries of foreign affairs and higher education, as well as the cabinet and the Yemeni embassy in Syria.

Mohammed Qasim Al-Sheikh, a lawyer and the father of one of the students, led the group that met the Syrian ambassador in Sana’a.

“The Syrian ambassador to Yemen promised to intervene to secure the release the two students on condition that high-ranking Yemeni officials also put pressure on Syrian authorities,” he said.

The students were in Syria to study after receiving scholarships from the Ministry of Higher Education, They were studied at the University of Tashreen, in the engineering college, four years ago.