Red Cross says Tunisian employee kidnapped in Yemen

Unidentified assailants on Tuesday kidnapped two Red Cross workers in the Yemeni capital, releasing one but keeping the other, a Tunisian female staffer, an ICRC spokeswoman has said.

"One, a Yemeni, was released unharmed a few hours later. The second, a Tunisian colleague, a woman, is still being held," said International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Rima Kamal.

She said the ICRC had suspended all movements of its staff in Yemen following the kidnapping and called for the immediate release of the Tunisian staff member.

"We don't know who has done this or why," Kamal told AFP.

"We appeal to those responsible to release our colleague as soon as possible," she added.

According to Kamal the pair were on their way to work in Sanaa when they were abducted.

Since March, Saudi Arabia has led an air campaign against Houthi rebels, who seized Sanaa last year and then advanced south to second city Aden, forcing President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and his government to flee to Saudi Arabia.

The International Committee for the Red Cross has been carrying out humanitarian relief work in the southern Yemeni city of Aden, which has witnessed heavy fighting for the past few months.

The Committee has frequently expressed its concerns over the growing number of casualties in Yemen, as the fighting escalates.

More than 5,700 people have been killed in the fighting, while 82 percent of the population - 21 million people - are in urgent need of aid.