(AKI) - Yemeni tribesmen have kidnapped three German citizens 60 kilometres from the capital, Sanaa, news reports said on Monday citing unnamed security officials. One of the three Germans works for a United Nations agency in Yemen, Arabic satellite TV station Al-Arabiya reported. Armed Yemeni tribesmen from the Kumaim clan seized a German man and two German women near the town of Radaa in Baidha Province, Al-Arabiya said.
The German man is the father of the two German women and was accompanying them on a trip, according to Al-Arabiya.
Foreigners are often seized in Yemen as tribes try to resolve differences with the central government. Most have been released unharmed.
Sometimes the kidnappers demand a ransom and on other occasions they seek the release of jailed relatives in exchange for freeing the hostages. This was the case when tribesmen held two Japanese women in May for less than a day.
A German diplomat and his family was abducted at gunpoint by Yemeni tribesmen and held for five days in December, 2005. The family was freed unharmed after Yemen's government and tribal mediators reportedly agreed to arrest five men from a rival tribe involved in a vendetta against the kidnappers.