Three Kidnapped German Children in Video: German NP
There’s hope yet…
German newspapers are reporting that three children kidnapped in Yemen along with their parents June 13 were seen alive in a video. There’s no indication yet about the circumstances of the video or how it was obtained. The German government hasn’t confirmed or denied the reports.
The children’s parents and four other medical workers in the Sa’ada region were taken at gunpoint by unknown persons. Three young nurses were found murdered days later. Besides the children and their parents, a British engineer remains missing in Yemen. See my category “nine hostages” for full coverage since the incident.
The Yemeni government instantly blamed the Houthi rebels for the kidnapping, although there were no indications at all of who was responsible. Along with western investigators, Yemeni authorities launched a search, discovering an al Qaeda traning camp in an abandoned military outpost. Other hypothesis pointed to a power struggle among major drug dealers with the authorities.
At the time of the kidnapping, the rebels and others postulated that the Germans’ kidnapping was a precursor to another war, pointing specifically to the alleged “false flag” attack on the bin Sallem mosque that preceded the fifth Sa’ada war in northern Yemen. War resumed in August, with devastating consequences on the civilian population.
Berlin – The three children of a German family kidnapped in Yemen have appeared in a video sent to the German government, Bild newspaper reported on Wednesday. The video reportedly showed that the children aged one, three and five were still alive. The newspaper quoted a government official as saying, ‘The children look exhausted.’ The condition of the parents, who had worked in a hospital in Saada province, remained unclear.
Foreign Office spokesmen refused to confirm or deny having received the video, thought to have been recorded in recent weeks, and said they were ‘continuing to look for a resolution.’
The family was abducted in June, along with two other German women and a Korean woman who were later found, shot.
A German diplomat, Juergen Chrobog, is negotiating the family’s release.
Chrobog, formerly Germany’s most senior career diplomat as joint head of the Foreign Office, was himself kidnapped with his family in Yemen, in 2005.
Read more: M&C
