Kidnapped Red Cross

worker freed in Yemen

GENEVA — The international Red Cross says a French staff member kidnapped in Yemen almost three months ago has been freed.

A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross says 28-year-old Benjamin Malbrancke was handed over by a group called Ansar al-Shari’a in Shabwa on Friday.

Hicham Hassan told The Associated Press on Saturday that it is still unclear who was behind the kidnapping.

Malbrancke was snatched April 21 in the western coastal province of Hudayda while traveling to a local airport in an ICRC-marked vehicle.

Foreigners have been targeted repeatedly for kidnapping by tribal groups in Yemen. An offshoot of the al-Qaeda terror group also operates in the country.