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French woman kidnapped in Yemen

The 30-year-old woman, who is believed to have ties with the World Bank, was taken by unidentified armed men in the capital Sanaa.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

A French woman working for an international organisation in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, has been kidnapped, the French foreign ministry says, reports the BBC.

Security sources say gunmen seized the woman and her Yemeni driver on Tuesday morning as she was going to work.

The French foreign ministry, which closed its embassy in Sanaa in February, said it was trying to locate and free the woman.

It gave no further details, but urged French citizens to leave the country.

Yemen is a base for al-Qaeda-affiliated militants and foreigners have been targets of kidnappings in the past.

The security situation in the country sharply deteriorated after President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi resigned in January following a takeover by a Shia militia group, the Houthis.

Read more of this report from the BBC.