3 UN workers reportedly kidnapped in Yemen’s Abyan

SANAA, Yemen

Three UN employees were reportedly kidnapped in Abyan province in southern Yemen, a local security official said on Saturday.

“Unidentified gunmen abducted Akem Sofiol, the director of the United Nations Office for Security and Safety in Aden, on Friday evening,” Adel al-Awsji, the security chief of Lauder directorate in Abyan province, told Anadolu Agency.

He said the office’s general coordinator, Mohamed al-Maliki, and security coordinator Mazen Bawazeer were also kidnapped.

The security official said the gunmen in the Suwayda area stopped the car the UN employees were in as they were heading to Aden to assess the needs of the locals there and took them to an unknown destination.

A manhunt has been launched for the kidnappers.

There was no comment from the UN or Yemeni authorities on the report and no group has yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara