NEW YORK, 18 February 2022, (TON): Talks aimed at securing the release of five UN workers abducted by Al-Qaeda militants in Yemen have reached a deadlock after the Yemeni government refused to take part in a prisoner swap.

A local security official told Arab News that tribal negotiators had failed to convince terror group leaders to free the staff who were taken hostage while travelling in the southern province of Abyan.

The UN employees’ abductors had demanded a release swap for militant prisoners being held by the Yemeni government in Aden, along with a ransom of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The official, who wished to remain anonymous, said “they want us to release terrorist elements. They are trying to blackmail the state.”

The five UN workers, four Yemenis and a foreigner who were based in Aden, were seized in Abyan’s Moudia district while heading back to their office on Feb. 11. Their Al-Qaeda captors later demanded, through local tribal figures, that local authorities swap them with militant prisoners, and also demanded a ransom of SR1 million.

The security official said that the militants also demanded that the government pay money for relatives of dead militants and militant prisoners, threatening to kill the hostages if the security and army services tried to use force to release them.