THE UN announced on Saturday that five UN staff members were kidnapped in southern Yemen while returning to Aden following a field operation.
According to Russell Geekie, a spokesman for the top UN official in Yemen, the crew was kidnapped on Friday in Abyan governorate.
“The United Nations is in close contact with the authorities to secure their release,” Geekie said.
A news agency stated yesterday that Yemen’s internationally recognized government, based in south Yemen, was trying to securely free the United Nations workers kidnaped by unknown gunmen.
According to a UN source in Aden, four of those detained were Yemeni nationals.
Yemen has been wracked by violence since the Houthi movement, which was associated with Iran, overthrew the government in Sanaa in late 2014, prompting a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia to intervene months later.
Islamist militant groups Al Qaeda and Islamic State are among Yemen’s many destabilizing forces. They have carried out assaults in the past, especially in the south, where protests over poor economic conditions erupted last year.
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and created a humanitarian disaster, with 80 percent of Yemen’s population relying on aid.
