Updated | In brief call to workplace, abducted Maltese man says he is in good health

A Maltese man who was kidnapped by unidentified assailants made contact, via a brief telephone call, with his workplace, reporting that he was in good health, according to a report in the L-Orizzont newspaper. 

Maltese national Pierre Baldacchino, a manager at Saint James Hospital in Tripoli, was abducted by unknown people in Tripoli earlier this week.

Baldacchino gave no further information during his phone call.

The Maltese government is believed to be involved in trying to help track down the 36-year-old father of two.

He is the second Maltese man to have been abducted in the Libyan capital in two months.

Noel Sciberras, the director of CT Parks, a company which administers car parks, had also been abducted by a gang in Tajoura, and subsequently released by the Rada militia in an operation conducted on Wednesday 28 October.

He had been kidnapped in Libya for over 46 days. Unverified claims by the Rada militia on Facebook reported that a ransom of €5 million had been asked for his release by his captors. The Rada "Deterrent" Force was responsible for the control of Mitiga Airport, the only operational airport in Tripoli after Tripoli International Airport was heavily damaged and rendered inoperable in fighting between Zintani militias and Libya forces in 2014.

The militia is a powerful Tripoli-based militia led by hardline Islamist Abdul Raouf Kara — which also maintains a base there and runs the airport prison. The group has carried out frequent incursions against Islamic State forces in Libya, and is affiliated to the Libya Dawn (Fajr Libya) government in Tripoli.