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French aid workers missing in Yemen | |
(40 minutes later) | |
Three French aid workers are feared kidnapped after going missing in southern Yemen, officials say. | |
The three are reported to have gone missing in Hadramawt in the south-east. | |
They had been in Seyun since mid-April working for Triangle Generation Humanitaire, a French NGO working in Yemen since 1998. | |
There have been dozens of kidnappings of foreigners in Yemen over recent years, and most have been freed unharmed. | There have been dozens of kidnappings of foreigners in Yemen over recent years, and most have been freed unharmed. |
Yemen's powerful tribes frequently kidnap people in order to bargain with the government in disputes. | Yemen's powerful tribes frequently kidnap people in order to bargain with the government in disputes. |
A Yemeni security official told the French news agency AFP that the three men were reported missing on Saturday afternoon when they failed to return to their residence in Seyun. | |
He added that their mobile phones "were suddenly switched off". | He added that their mobile phones "were suddenly switched off". |
"Units of the security forces were immediately deployed to search for them," he said. | |
"The most likely thing is that they have been kidnapped." | |
The French foreign ministry in Paris confirmed that three French nationals had gone missing and said authorities were doing everything possible to find them. | |
On its website, Triangle Generation Humanitaire says its work in Yemen includes aiding Somali refugees and helping provide clean water in the southern port of Aden. | |
A spokesman for the group told Reuters news agency there had been no word from its three workers since 1000 GMT. He declined to name them. | |
"For the moment, we have no news. We are in a crisis situation, information is arriving little by little," he said. | |
He said the three had been on their way home from work when they vanished. |