German envoy escapes Yemen kidnap attempt, bodyguard killed

Germany's ambassador to Yemen escapes kidnapping attempt in Sanaa but her bodyguard is killed.

SANAA // Germany’s ambassador to Yemen escaped a kidnapping attempt on Sunday in the capital during which her bodyguard was killed.

“There was an attempt to kidnap Ambassador Carola Muller-Holtkemper as she came out of a store in Hada,” a southern Sanaa district where foreign embassies are located, a diplomatic source said.

“The ambassador escaped but her bodyguard was killed as he tried to resist the attackers who managed to flee.”

A spokeswoman for the foreign ministry in Berlin said the government was “making intensive efforts to clear up the facts”.

Medics in Sanaa said the corpse of the bodyguard was taken to the Saudi-German hospital in the capital.

Witnesse said that gunmen in a vehicle opened fire on a German citizen, killing him as he left a shop in Hada.

Security forces sealed off the area after the attack.

Diplomatic sources also said a “foreigner working for a non-governmental organisation” had been kidnapped in northern Sanaa, but gave no details.

Foreigners have been attacked or kidnapped in Yemen, home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula which is viewed by Militants are still holding Saudi Arabia’s deputy consul in Aden, Abdullah Al Khalidi, whom they seized in March last year.

They are demanding the release of female Al Qaeda-linked prisoners held in Saudi Arabia in return for his release.

* Agence France-Presse