26 years after he went missing, an Algerian man has been found alive in his neighbour’s cellar.

The 45-year-old man identified as Omar bin Omran disappeared from the Algerian town of Djelfa when he was 19. He was assumed to be among the hundreds of thousands killed or kidnapped during the Algerian Civil War in 1998.

But Mr Omran was found last week in a sheepfold under haystacks only about 200 metres away from his childhood home on May 12. Officials confirmed they had arrested a 61-year-old doorman suspected of keeping him prisoner.

According to the Algerian newspaper El Khabar, his dog recognized his scent and stayed near where Omar was held. It was alleged that the captor poisoned the dog to ward the family off.

The kidnapping was discovered after the suspect’s brother posted revealing information on social media, amid an alleged inheritance dispute between the siblings. Mr Omran said he had not been able to call out for help “because of a spell that his captor had cast on him,” Algerian media reported.