New demands for Yemeni kidnappers

Members of the Yemeni Bani Zubian tribe who kidnapped four Germans in the Wadi al-Zeina district demanded that the Yemeni government carry out development projects in their district and provide work opportunities and scholarships.

The kidnappers submitted a list of demands to the government to build schools and clinics in the district and to link it to water and electricity networks and to construct roads.

They also demanded work opportunities for 100 young men from the tribe and scholarships in the faculties of engineering and medicine at Sanaa University and abroad.

Tribal sources said that Yemeni troops on Wednesday besieged the area where the hostages have been kept, to pressure the kidnappers at a time when negotiations proceed with the tribe's clans.