Akam Sofyol Anam, director of the UN Office of Security and Safety in Yemen, has accused the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of thwarting negotiations to liberate him and four of his colleagues who were kidnapped in an ambush by Al-Qaeda in Abyan province while on their way to Aden, southern Yemen, February 11.
This came in a video footage released on Saturday by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch released a video showing a United Nations worker who was abducted in southern Yemen, more than six months ago, the Site Intelligence Group reported.
In Saturday’s video message the captive Akam Sofyol Anam, urges “the UN, the international community, the humanitarian organisations, to please come forward… and meet the demands of my captors”, without outlining what the demands precisely were.
Akam Sofyol Anam said he was facing “serious health trouble”, including heart problems, and needed “immediate medical support and hospitalisation”, according to SITE, which monitors extremist activity.
Five UN staff members were kidnapped in Yemen’s southern province of Abyan in February while returning to the port city of Aden “after having completed a field mission,” UN spokesperson Eri Kaneko said at the time.