Egyptian officials said the two Americans and a local tour guide kidnapped four days ago in the Sinai have been released.

A group of armed men abducted Michel Louis, Lisa Alphonse and their Egyptian tour guide on Friday. They were part of a bus tour heading to a sixth century church located at the foot of Mount Sinai.

Authorities had identified the abductor as Germy Abu Masuh, a member of a prominent Bedouin tribe in the Sinai. Abu Masuh wants Egyptian police to free his uncle, who is in jail for possessing half a ton of drugs.

Louis' son, Jean Joel Manasse Louis, tells VOA that his father, a Haitian-American and a pastor of a Boston church, organizes a pilgrimage every year.