The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) confirms the kidnapping of a Swiss woman in the city of Hodeida, Yemen.

The FDFA was informed about the kidnapping in the evening of 15 March 2012. The FDFA Crisis Management Centre was immediately activated to deal with this new kidnapping case in cooperation with the Federal Office of Police (fedpol) and the information services of the Confederation.

First contacts with the responsible authorities in Yemen have already been made by the representative of the SDC agency and the Swiss Honorary Consul in Sana‘a. The FDFA will do everything within its power to ensure that the victim of the kidnapping is released in good health.

In the travel advice reports the FDFA publishes, since the beginning of 2011, the FDFA has advised against any travel to Yemen and, since June 2011, has called on Swiss nationals to leave the country temporarily.

The FDFA strongly recommends consulting its travel advice reports before travelling abroad. A total of 157 countries are covered and the reports are continually updated. The purpose of the reports is to inform Swiss citizens about the situation prevailing in their destination countries and about important security measure to take.

 The travel advice reports, in German, French and Italian, can be found on the FDFA website.