Sana’a: Two UN staff members who were abducted in Yemen on Tuesday have been freed, authorities said.
The Italian Foreign Ministry in Rome confirmed that an Italian citizen working for the United Nations Development Programme had been released but provided no details.
The UN confirmed in a statement that two of its staff members were abducted and later released in the capital of Sana’a. The statement provided no further details but thanked “efforts made by the Yemeni authorities in obtaining their release.”
The Yemeni Defence ministry said in a statement that troops freed the Italian from his kidnappers in northeastern Marib province. He had been taken there after being abducted in a main street in Sana’a. Marib is about 160 kilometres from Sana’a.
The statement said troops engaged with the kidnappers and were tracking them. It was not clear if there were any casualties.
The interior ministry said in a separate statement that it had worked with the military in a joint force to free the Italian. It said it had arrested suspects in Sana’a believed to have cooperated with the kidnappers.
A UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said a UN driver was kidnapped with the Italian staff member.
Abductions are frequent in Yemen, an impoverished nation where armed tribesmen and Al Qaida-linked militants take hostages to swap for prisoners or cash.
Yemen is engaged in a rocky political transition since longtime autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down in 2012 following mass popular protests. Multiple armed groups across the country resist state authority.
