Indian Red Cross staff kidnapped in Yemen

Armed tribesmen kidnapped two Indian employees of the international Red Cross in southern Yemen on Wednesday, in the second such incident in the region this week, a spokeswoman for the organisation and local sources said.

‘Gunmen intercepted two Indian Red Cross workers in Jaar (in Abyan province) and led them at gunpoint to a mountainous region,’ a member of a pro-government local militia controlling the town told media. Dibeh Fakhr, Middle East spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), contacted by telephone in Geneva, confirmed the kidnapping of the two employees and said negotiations were underway to secure their release.

The source from the Popular Resistance Committees, local militias which backed the army in chasing Al-Qaeda militants out of Abyan last year, said the militia’s deputy chief was leading the negotiations.