Kidnapping of foreigners in Yemen is common
"The ambassador and the team are in the region to engage with local authorities and to try to help the two South African citizens," international relations department spokesperson Clayson Monyela said on Wednesday.
Ambassador Sadiq Jaffer flew from Saudi Arabia to Yemen on Tuesday night. The Saudi Arabian embassy is accredited to Yemen, Monyela said.
The two, a man and a woman, were believed to have been involved in the development of the hotel from which they were kidnapped, Monyela said.
"We have not received any further development on the situation yet. Information will be made available as soon as we get new information," said Monyela.
Previously, French news agency Agence-France Presse (AFP) quoted an official as saying the kidnappers came from the Janadiyah area, 35km east of Taiz. The official told AFP the kidnappers were loyal to a local chief, who was involved in a long-running dispute with authorities about a plot of land, and that it was possible the tourists were being used for bargaining.
It was the latest attack targeting foreigners in the impoverished Arab state, where the government is struggling to restore law and order since a power transfer deal in late 2011 saw former president Ali Abdullah Saleh hand over to his deputy following months of pro-democracy protests.
A source told AFP the gunmen seized the man and woman believed to be in their thirties in Yemen's commercial hub to the south of the capital Sanaa, and led them to an unknown location.
"Police are trying to determine the identity of the kidnappers and where they have taken their captives," the source said.
Mistaken for Europeans
The source added that the kidnappers had apparently mistaken the South African pair for Europeans or Americans but gave no further details on what they were doing in Yemen.
Kidnapping of foreigners in Yemen is common, often carried out by disgruntled tribesmen seeking to press the government to free jailed relatives or to improve public services, or by Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda.
Earlier this month, tribesmen briefly kidnapped three employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross – a Swiss, a Kenyan and a Yemeni – in the southern province of Abyan but freed them three days later.
Yemen has been grappling with an Islamist insurgency, a separatist movement in the southern part of the country and a spate of attacks by gunmen on power stations, electric grids and oil pipelines since President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was elected for a two-year interim period in 2013 after Saleh stepped down.
Lawlessness in the poor Arabian Peninsula state has alarmed neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil exporter, as well as the United States, which increasingly views Yemen as a frontline in its struggle against al-Qaeda. – AFP; additional reporting by Reuters