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YEMEN

Swede in Yemen kidnapping drama

Yemeni tribesmen kidnapped and then later freed the Swedish technical director of a cement works in the troubled southern province of Abyan on Friday after holding him overnight, a provincial official told AFP.

Swede in Yemen kidnapping drama
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh meets French President Nicolas Sarkozy

The Swede, who was kidnapped at gunpoint as he left work in the provincial capital Zinjibar on Thursday to travel to the main southern city of Aden, was in good health after his ordeal, the official added.

“The Swede was freed after the kidnappers received assurances from the local government that President Ali Abdullah Saleh would personally review the case of one of their clansmen,” said the official, who works in Khanfar district where the hostage was taken.

A security official told AFP earlier that the kidnappers were believed to be members of the Maraqish tribe, which has been campaigning for the release of a clansman on death row in the capital Sanaa.

A spokesman for the Swedish foreign ministry in Stockholm said it had little information about the abduction.

“We have no confirmation he was even a Swede, though he seems to be,” spokesman Anders Jorle said.

Yemen’s powerful tribes often kidnap foreigners for use as bargaining chips in disputes with the central government. Of about 200 foreigners seized in Yemen over the past decade, almost all have been released unharmed.

After the brief abduction of two US tourists in May from near Hajara, a village west of the capital which is famed for its historic mountaintop buildings, Yemen pledged tough action against kidnappers of foreigners.

The security forces had been engaged since mid-2008 in a “relentless war against abductions and those responsible for them… the kidnappers being as dangerous as terrorists,” an interior ministry statement said at the time.

Yemen is the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and, with US military aid, the security forces have also been fighting a mounting campaign of attacks by the jihadist network’s local affiliate.

The formerly independent south has also seen a wave of protests in recent months by supporters of the Southern Movement, a coalition of groups campaigning for autonomy or secession.

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HOSTAGE

Swiss hostage ‘killed by jihadis in Mali’: ministry

A Swiss woman being held hostage in Mali "was apparently killed by kidnappers... about a month ago", Bern's foreign ministry said in a statement Friday.

Swiss hostage 'killed by jihadis in Mali': ministry
The information was provided by Sophie Petronin (above), who returned to France on Friday after four years in captivity. Photo: Stringer/AFP
“It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of our fellow citizen,” foreign affairs chief Ignazio Cassis said, adding that “I condemn this cruel act and express my deepest sympathy to the relatives”.
   
Switzerland did not release the name of the hostage who had been killed, but said they had been held by the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), an alliance comprising several jihadist groups aligned to al-Qaeda that has claimed responsibility for some of the biggest attacks in the Sahel region.
   
The foreign ministry (DFAE) said that “information about the killing was obtained by the French authorities from the recently released French hostage” Sophie Petronin, who returned to France on Friday after being freed by the Malian insurgents following almost four years in captivity.
 
   
Swiss authorities “are making every effort to find out more about the circumstances of the killing and the whereabouts of the remains,” the DFAE said, adding  that it “demands handing over” of the hostage's body.
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