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5 UN staff abducted in southern Yemen

February 13, 2022 at 12:14 pm

Security measurements are taken as UN special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg meets with local officials in Taiz, Yemen on November 8, 2021 [Abdulnasser Alseddik / Anadolu Agency]

Five United Nations staff have been abducted in southern Yemen while returning to Aden after a field mission, the United Nations said on Saturday according to a report by Reuters.

The staff were abducted on Friday in the Governorate of Abyan, said Russell Geekie, spokesman for the top UN official in Yemen.

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

Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which is based in south Yemen, was working to safely free the UN staff abducted by unknown gunmen, the official news agency on Saturday cited a cabinet statement as saying.

An official at the UN office in Aden told Reuters that four of those seized were Yemeni nationals.

Yemen has been mired in violence since the Iran-aligned Houthi movement ousted the government from the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014. A Saudi-led military coalition has been fighting the Houthi group in Yemen since 2015.

The coalition intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 after the Houthis ousted the government from the capital, Sanaa. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions, causing a dire humanitarian crisis.

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