Australian man kidnapped in Yemen

An Australian man has been kidnapped in Yemen, Canberra’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed on Tuesday.

The whereabouts of the abductee are unknown. Bishop has also admitted that the Australian authorities do not know when he was kidnapped, by whom and where exactly he was when he was abducted. However, in an interview, Bishop told Sky News that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade were working to confirm details of his abduction.

“We do understand that an Australian who has been in Yemen for some time has been kidnapped, but we don’t know the details,” she said on Tuesday morning.

“We are seeking to provide consular support to his family to keep them informed of as much as we know.”

“We don’t have a diplomatic presence in Yemen so we’re having to rely on partners and others to assist us in trying to find out what actually happened,” she added. In the past, Yemen’s neighbour Oman has helped mediate the release of westerners that have been kidnapped. Yemen has been locked in a bitter battle between Shia Houthi fighters allied with forces loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh and government forces led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, along with local tribes and resistance forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition’s airstrikes.