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Gunmen kidnap journalist in Yemen’s Taiz

January 3, 2022 at 9:02 am

A mural on the wall for Yemeni journalists who have been killed, 12 December 2015 [Twitter]

Unidentified gunmen yesterday kidnapped a journalist from his office in Yemen’s southwestern city of Taiz, which falls under the authority of the internationally recognised Yemeni government.

Yemen Shabab reported the armed men “dressed in civilian clothes” had stormed its headquarters and kidnapped one of its journalists, named “Abdul Rahman Al-Shawafi.”

No party has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping yet.

On Saturday, Media Freedoms Observatory in Yemen reported a total of 86 violations against journalists in 2021. Local and global rights organisations also say that journalists are being subjected to multiple violations as a result of the country’s conflict.

Yemen is ranked 169th out of 180 countries in the global media freedom rating list in 2021, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Impoverished Yemen has been mired in seven years of fighting between a pro-government Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels, generating the world’s worst humanitarian and development crisis and leaving the country teetering on the brink of famine, according to the United Nations.

READ: 15 organisations condemn Houthi death sentence against human rights activist