Red Cross official kidnapped in Yemen

A French official of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been kidnapped by armed men while travelling from northern Yemen to the Red Sea port city of Hudaida.

The kidnapping of the official, whose identity was not disclosed, came amid renewed fighting between Yemen's military and al-Qaeda on Saturday in the southern city of Zinjibar that left 19 people killed.

Dibeh Fakhr, an ICRC spokeswoman in Sanaa, said that the man who works in the northern city of Saada was kidnapped late on Saturday some 30 km from Hudaida. 

It is not yet clear who is responsible, but kidnappings of westerners are not uncommon in Yemen.

The ICRC said it had not heard from the kidnappers but it has issued a call for the aid worker's immediate release.

Reports say the man was with two Yemeni drivers who were released shortly afterwards.

The Red Cross office in Sanaa said he had been working in the northern city of Saada.

Last week, al-Qaeda announced that it was holding a Saudi diplomat kidnapped at the end of March.

Abdullah al-Khalidi, a deputy consul in Aden, was abducted outside his home in the southern port city on 28 March. Al-Qaeda called for militants held in Saudi Arabian prisons to be freed in exchange for his release.

A Swiss woman working as a teacher was also kidnapped in Hodeida in March. French news agency AFP reported that she is being held by al-Qaeda after being taken to the far eastern province of Shabwa.