Yemen forces agree on ceasefire

Three French aid workers are feared kidnapped after going missing in southern Yemen, officials say.

The three are reported to have gone missing in Hadramawt in the south-east.

They had been in Seyun since mid-April working for Triangle Generation Humanitaire, a French NGO working in Yemen since 1998.

There have been dozens of kidnappings of foreigners in Yemen over recent years, and most have been freed unharmed.

Yemen’s powerful tribes frequently kidnap people in order to bargain with the government in disputes.

A Yemeni security official told the French news agency AFP that the three men were reported missing on Saturday afternoon when they failed to return to their residence in Seyun.

He added that their mobile phones “were suddenly switched off”.

“Units of the security forces were immediately deployed to search for them,” he said.

“The most likely thing is that they have been kidnapped.”

The French foreign ministry in Paris confirmed that three French nationals had gone missing and said authorities were doing everything possible to find them.

On its website, Triangle Generation Humanitaire says its work in Yemen includes aiding Somali refugees and helping provide clean water in the southern port of Aden.

A spokesman for the group told Reuters news agency there had been no word from its three workers since 1000 GMT. He declined to name them.

“For the moment, we have no news. We are in a crisis situation, information is arriving little by little,” he said.

He said the three had been on their way home from work when they vanished.

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