Five UN security personnel kidnapped in Yemen released after 18 months in captivity

The United Nations said Friday that five staff members who were kidnapped in Yemen 18 months ago have walked free.
In a brief statement, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said that all “available information suggests that all five colleagues are in good health.”
Haq named the freed men as Akm Sufiul Anam; Mazen Bawazir; Bakeel al-Mahdi; Mohammed al-Mulaiki; and Khaled Mokhtar Sheikh. All worked for the UN Department of Security and Safety, he said.
The identity of the kidnappers was not revealed.
In February 2022, suspected al-Qaeda militants abducted five UN workers in southern Yemen’s Abyan province, Yemeni officials told the Associated Press at the time.
Kidnappings are frequent in Yemen, an impoverished nation where armed tribesmen and militants take hostages to swap for prisoners or cash.
Yemeni Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani calls for the arrest of a group of leaders from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis who he says will a…
Suspected Somali pirates have seized another Yemeni fishing boat off the Horn of Africa, authorities said. In a statement late Tuesday, a E…
The UN will continue its humanitarian operations in Yemen despite the recent death of a UN staffer while in the custody of the Houthi-aligned autho…