CAIRO, Jan. 19 (Aswat Masriya) – President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received Tuesday 20 Egyptian nationals who were held captive by Libyan militia groups earlier in January.

The president said that the release of Egyptians came following “effort and in cooperation with the Libyan government and General (Khalifa) Haftar”, according to state-run MENA news agency. 

Haftar is the commander for Libya's internationally-recognised government in the east. 

The Egyptians were abducted from the Jufra district in central Libya. They are originally from the village of Daquf in Minya, Upper Egypt, a statement by Egypt’s foreign ministry said earlier in January.

Egyptians residing in Libya have been caught up in the country’s internal conflict.

Accordingly, Egypt has warned against travel to Libyan territories and called for Egyptians living in Libya to exercise extreme caution.

Almost a year ago, in Feb. 2015, ISIS-affiliated militants abducted 20 Egyptian Christians in the Libyan city of Sirte then beheaded them, releasing a video of their beheading afterwards.

In response, Egypt launched airstrikes in Libya in the same week of the video's release. The Egyptian military said in a statement the strikes targeted training sites and weapons and ammunition storage sites belonging to ISIS fighters in the country. 

Violence has intensified in Libya particularly since 2014, when conflicting parties sought to take control of the country.