Yemeni tribal gunmen kidnapped a foreign doctor in the northeastern province of Marib on Sunday, officials said.

An official of the Yemeni Interior Ministry said that the abducted doctor was a Russian national, but local officials in Marib province said that the man was from Uzbekistan working in a provincial hospital.

A local security official said that the doctor disappeared on Sunday afternoon. Some local residents told police that they saw him being confined by tribal gunmen.

Foreigners are frequently kidnapped in Yemen, where the security situation has worsened since 2011 when a political upheaval severely weakened the government control. However, abduction of doctors in the Arab country is rarely seen.

At least six foreigners have been kidnapped in Yemen for the past two months. In February tribesmen and al-Qaida members abducted two British nationals and a Germanin Sanaa.

Most of the kidnapped foreigners have been freed unharmed. In January, a South African woman was freed from the southern province of Abyan, but a ransom of millions of US dollars was demanded for the release of her husband, according to local media.

The Yemeni government has taken efforts to stabilize the country, such as holding a national reconciliation dialogue which ended in January after a ten-month debate.