Last Saturday, AQAP published a video depicting a United Nations employee who had been abducted more than six months prior, SITE Intelligence Group reported.
In the video, AKM Sufiul Anam, a United Nations official identified as a Bangladeshi, said, “Currently I am held captive by Al Qaeda. It has been six months since I’m held captive in a place I do not know. My family does not know where I am. If I die, my family will not be able to know.”
In the video message, ostensibly shot on August 9, Sufiul Anam was also heard pleading “the UN, the international community, the humanitarian organisations, to please come forward… and meet the demands of my captors”, without specifying the demands.
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The 65-year-old Bangladeshi claimed that he was in urgent need of hospitalisation due to major health issues.
Sufiul Anam, identified as “director of the United Nations Office of Security and Safety in Yemen”, and four coworkers were abducted on February 11.
Following the video and media reports on it, a relative of the abducted Bangladeshi UN official – on her Facebook profile – sought help from media, Bangladesh government, the UN, and other relevant organizations in freeing Sufiul Anam and his team.
Sadia Hedayet wrote: “More than 6 months back, my uncle Sufiul Anam was abducted when him and his team were returning from a field mission near Aden, Yemen. He had retired as a Lieutenant Colonel of Bangladesh Army and has been serving as Field Security Coordination Head for UN Department of Safety and Security. He is set to retire this year after his United Nations career spanning about 17 years, during which he served in some of the most dangerous places in the world.”
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“He is one of the bravest people I have ever met in my life. Sometimes when I am sitting by myself, I think what must have gone on in his mind when he was being taken. I think he tried to logically reason with them because that’s who he is.”
“It has been more than six months that he has been held captive along with his colleagues from the UN. This is the first time in a long time that we have got an update that he is alive through a video released by his captors. But he is not okay. He is 60+ years old. He suffers from hypertension and diabetes. He has not seen daylight in 6 months…”
“I am putting this message out there, as a desperate plea to bring attention to this issue. We are helpless, we don’t know how to help our uncle except this.”
Source: United News of Bangladesh