Al Qaeda releases video of Bangladeshi UN worker abducted in Yemen

Akam Sofyol Anam says his colleagues are in urgent need of medical care

Pro-government forces flash victory signs as they join an operation to drive Al Qaeda fighters out of the capital of the southern Yemeni province of Abyan in April 2016. AFP

Al Qaeda's Yemen branch has released a new video of a UN worker abducted 16 months ago in the war-torn country, the Site Intelligence Group has said.

The man, who identified himself as Akam Sofyol Anam from the UN Department of Safety and Security in Aden, appealed for his release and warned he and two of his fellow abductees were “seriously ill”.

In February 2022, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula kidnapped Mr Anam and four others as they were returning to the port city of Aden after a field mission.

Wearing a blue shirt and glasses and reading from a prepared statement, Mr Anam – identified by the Site monitoring service as Bangladeshi – said his sick colleagues needed urgent hospital treatment.

There was no way of knowing who prepared the statement, which appeared to have been recorded on June 3. A previous recording of Mr Anam was released by his captors last September.

Yemen's conflict began in 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene the following year to prop up the internationally recognised government.

AQAP and militants loyal to ISIS have thrived in the chaos.

Formed in a merger of Al Qaeda's Yemen and Saudi branches, AQAP has carried out attacks on both rebel and government targets in Yemen, as well as on foreigners.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed directly or indirectly in Yemen's war.

But hostilities have sharply declined since a six-month, UN-brokered truce came into effect in April last year, even after it lapsed in October.