Only hours after UN officials confirmed on Tuesday that two aid workers had been kidnapped at the heart of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a in broad day light by unidentified armed men, a statement from the Italian foreign ministry announced both foreign nationals had been safely released.
A UN official told the press that two workers of the UN Development Department, an Italian national and his driver had been abducted in Sana’a in what appeared to be an al-Qaeda targeted kidnapping. Although the two men were release only hours after their abduction following the intervention of the authorities, security experts are not dismissing the al-Qaeda card. A former military official told the Yemen Post the kidnapping could very well have been carried by local tribesmen on contract for al-Qaeda. He added that the high profile of the attack and the authorities’ fast response might have made the men nervous and thus prompted an early resolution.
Due the sensitivity of the incident both the UN and Yemen officials have restrained from making any further comment.
While in this particular instance both men seem to be in good health, the fact that armed men felt so bold as to kidnapped foreign UN aid workers at the heart of the capital, only serves to underscore the state’ recurrent inability to secure its capital, the heart of its institutions.
Yemen has seen an explosion of violence since the departure of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, with no signs that the state is any closer from regaining control.