Al-Jazeera says 3 of its reporters in Yemen likely kidnapped

Al-Jazeera has annouced that three of its reporters working in war-torn Yemen are likely to have been kidnapped.

Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent, Hamdi al-Bokari and his crew, Abdulaziz al-Sabri and Moneer al-Sabai, were last seen on Monday night.

Al-Jazeera and Al-Masdar did not accuse any specific group of abducting their correspondents, but Al-Jazeera said in its statement to CPJ that the network was in touch with unspecified “related parties” to secure their release.

They were covering events in the city just before they went missing. “Our colleagues were simply doing their job of reporting the story and informing the world on what is taking place in Yemen”, Al Jazeera Media Network Acting Director General Mostefa Souag said in a statement.

In Taiz, Shiite rebels known as Houthis have been battling local fighters, who include ultraconservatives and pro-government forces.

The Qatari-funded news channel, whose reporting of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings won it millions of viewers in the Middle East, has seen several of its journalists detained and killed in recent years in conflicts across the region.

Yemen’s conflict has killed some 5,800 people since March and left over 80 per cent of the country’s population in dire need of food, water and other aid, according to the United Nations.

The International Press Institute (IPI) today expressed deep concern for members of a reporting crew on assignment for Al Jazeera who the broadcaster believes were kidnapped in Yemen earlier this week.