Reports this morning indicate that a South African couple have been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in the city of Taiz.

Yemen experienced localised pro-democracy protests during the Arab Spring of 2011, which resulted in former President Ali Abdullah Saleh hand over to his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Since that time, the poor neighbour of Saudi Arabia has been struggling to restore law and order with increasing difficulty.

More, from Reuters:

The source added that the kidnappers had apparently mistaken the South African pair for Europeans or Americans but gave no further details on what they were doing in Yemen.

Kidnapping of foreigners in Yemen is common, often carried out by disgruntled tribesmen seeking to press the government to free jailed relatives or to improve public services, or by Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda.

Earlier this month, tribesmen briefly kidnapped three employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross — a Swiss, a Kenyan and a Yemen — in the southern province of Abyan but freed them three days later.

We haven’t been able to confirm whether or not the couple was fishing for salmon at the time.

Do you know the couple who was kidnapped? Let us know.

[Source : Reuters]