AKIPRESS.COM - Tajikistan's Foreign Ministry has asked Yemeni authorities to secure the release of a Tajik female doctor kidnapped last month in Yemen's Marib province, reports AFP. 

A ministry spokesman said on November 14 Dushanbe has also asked the Russian embassy in Yemen to help secure the Tajik national's freedom.

Gulrukhsor Rofieva, 36, who was working as a doctor in Yemen, was kidnapped on October 29, reports RFE/RL. 

Yemen's interior ministry said in a statement on November 14 "security services in Marib are doing all they can to free the Tajik citizen."

Tribal sources said the kidnappers are pressing the authorities to release fellow tribesmen held on criminal charges.

Hundreds of foreigners have been abducted in Yemen over the past two decades by tribesmen who use them as bargaining chips in disputes with government.

Dozens of Tajik doctors work in Yemen.