Sana’a: A group of armed men briefly kidnapped three Syrian nurses working in a local hospital in Yemen’s restive province of Mareb for bearing resemblance to Russian doctors, a local journalist told Gulf News.
The nurses were outside the government-run Mareb General hospital on Monday when the gunmen forced them into getting into their car and drove them to a mountainous area. Shortly after reaching the mountain, the men found out that the blonde nurses were speaking Arabic, not Russian.
The incident comes as police in the same province are searching for a Tajik nurse who was kidnapped from the province’s capital, Mareb, more than a month ago.
“The armed men kept the Syrians for three hours and released them afterward when they knew that they were Syrians not Russians.” said Abdul Wahab Namran, a journalist working for Yemen Today TV.
On Tuesday, Ahmad Dahmas, the director of Mareb Military hospital told Gulf News that he had no new information on the whereabouts of the Tajik nurse who was taken hostage while heading to the hospital in October.
“No one has claimed responsibility for the abduction. The governor of the province and military officials tell us that they are doing their best to secure the release of the nurse.” Dahmas said.
Following the abduction, foreign medics in the province have been put under observation and escorted by security guards.
The province of Mareb have long been out of government’s control and mainly governed by influential tribes. Rebellious tribesmen have usually exploited the anarchy to kidnap foreigners to extract high ransom from the government or pressure release of jailed relatives in the capital.
