Seyaj Organization for Childhood Protection appealed to the Minister of Interior and the governor of Shabwa to intervene urgently to free an abducted child who was taken in order to pressure his tribe over a twenty-year-old financial debt.
According to the victim’s father’s appeal to the organization, twelve-year-old Salem Saleh Omar Al-Battati was abducted from inside his school in Al-Shaghrah area of Doan district in Hadramout and taken to Shabwa governorate. The complaint said unidentified men linked to a tribal sheikh in Shabwa kidnapped the child on 23 March 2014 to force his tribe to settle the debt of one of its members.
Seyaj called on the abductors to return the child immediately and held them fully responsible for any psychological or physical harm. It also urged security and judicial authorities to confront such crimes firmly and appealed to tribal leaders to treat the targeting of children and women as a grave dishonor that must never be accepted.
