Officials confirmed on Saturday evening that yet another foreign worker had been kidnapped in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a. The kidnapping of the female Czech doctor, whose identity has yet to be confirmed, took place on Saturday as she was walking to work. 

Witnesses confirmed that the doctor was walking toward the hospital she worked at, when unidentified armed men cut her off with their car and forced her to get in with them.

This is the third times this month that a foreign national is kidnapped in broad day light in Sana’a, underscoring the sheer lack of security the state has on its capital.

For reasons that have yet to be determined, the doctor was released only hours after her abduction. Her kidnappers simply abandoned her on the side of the road. The doctor, who is now back in the security of her own home had refused so far to speak of the incident.

While Yemen has more or less always known some level of insecurity, lawlessness or rather conflicting authorities were mostly felt in Yemen tribal areas, far away from the country main urban centres. As its the state continues steadily to lose grip over its institutions and security apparatus, tribes have become increasingly bold in their attack and opposition of officials, using violence and sabotage to impose their will and agendas onto the central government, knowing there will no repercussion to be spoken of.

Officials in Sana’a have revealed under cover of anonymity that they do not believe the Czech doctor was kidnapped by al-Qaeda but rather disgruntled tribesmen. Over the past few weeks, tribesmen from Marib, who already kidnapped a German oil worker, Rudiger Schwidt earlier in February, have warned that unless their relatives are released from jail they would keep on kidnaping foreign nationals as to exert further pressure on the state and prove their resolve.

The authorities are incline to believe this new abduction is tribal related and not terror related.