Yemeni Interior Ministry announces liberation of dozens of Africans from human trafficking gang

The Yemeni Ministry of Interior announced on Tuesday the liberation of dozens of illegal immigrants holding Ethiopian nationality in Shabwa Governorate, from the grip of a gang whose members hold the same nationality, who kidnapped them with the aim of obtaining money from their relatives.

According to the Yemeni Security Media Center, a campaign by the police of the city of Ataq, the center of Shabwa Governorate (southeast Yemen), was able to free 41 kidnapped Ethiopians in the settlement neighborhood, south of the city.

The center quoted the campaign leader, Captain Badr Al-Nasi, as saying that the police raided the place where the migrants were being held after receiving information that they had been kidnapped by a gang with the aim of blackmailing them financially. The gang was torturing them and contacting their families to request the transfer of sums of money in exchange for their release.

Captain Al-Nasi stated that the campaign resulted in the liberation of all the kidnapped Ethiopians, and the arrest of the gang members responsible for their kidnapping, in addition to 4 people he described as major smugglers who hold the same nationality.

The commander of the security campaign indicated that following the arrest of all members of the gang, preliminary investigation reports were opened against them, and they will later be referred to the Public Prosecution to complete the necessary legal procedures regarding them.