CAIRO, Jan. 26 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt’s foreign ministry is working on freeing seven Egyptian nationals who were abducted in Libya, a source at the ministry said on Thursday.

This comes few days after the ministry had managed to secure the release of 16 other Egyptians who were kidnapped in Libya.

Families of the seven victims said their relatives were abducted and held for ransom, assistant foreign minister for consular affairs Khaled Rizk told Aswat Masriya. He added that the ministry is following up on the situation and working on freeing the hostages.

Egypt has repeatedly warned its citizens against travel to Libyan territories and called for Egyptians living in Libya to exercise extreme caution due to the unstable security conditions.

Egyptians residing in Libya have been caught up in the country’s internal conflict, which has proliferated over the past few years.

In Feb. 2015, Islamic State (IS) fighters in Libya abducted and beheaded 20 Egyptian nationals in the city of Sirte, releasing a video of the 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, weapons and ammunition storage sites belonging to ISIS fighters in the country.