Five UN employees kidnapped southern Yemen

YemenExtra

An official in the United Nations office in Yemen announced today, the kidnapping of five employees of the United Nations in Abyan Governorate, southern Yemen.

An international news agency quoted Russell Geekie, a spokesman for the top UN official in Yemen, as saying that the United Nations confirmed the kidnapping of five of its employees on Friday in Abyan governorate.

Geekie explained that the five employees were on their way back to the city of Aden, southern Yemen, “after completing a field mission.”

“The United Nations is in close contact with the authorities to secure their release,” he added.

Meanwhile, Yemeni local reports said that gunmen suspected of belonging to Al-Qaeda intercepted a UN vehicle in the Mudiyah district, east of Abyan governorate, and kidnapped a number of UN officials, one of them a foreigner, without specifying his nationality, and took them to an unknown destination.

Abyan governorate, which is under the control of the Saudi-UAE forces, suffers from the growing activities of Al-Qaeda, southern Yemen.