The abduction took place Thursday in Hodeida on the Red Sea coast of the impoverished and restive Arab nation.

CNN: Swiss teacher kidnapped in Yemen

And hunger is rising, says Lydia Tinka, a veteran of multiple African crises who works in Hodeida for Oxfam, a British charity.

ECONOMIST: Among other troubles, Yemen faces a creeping famine

The woman was seized on Wednesday in Hodeida on the west coast, where she works as a teacher, but is reportedly being held in Shabwa province.

BBC: Swiss woman kidnapped in western Yemen

She was seized by gunmen on 14 March in Hodeida on the west coast of Yemen, where she worked as a teacher, but was later moved to Shabwa province.

BBC: Yemen kidnappers free Swiss teacher Sylvia Abrahat

This free-for-all is almost as alien to the better educated, more law-abiding, Sunni citizens of Taiz, the most urbanised region in the north, or Hodeida, its main port, as it is to the southerners.

ECONOMIST: Yemen