The Yemeni interior ministry said on Saturday that an Uzbekistan doctor who was kidnapped last week in Yemen's northeastern province of Marib was freed.

The ministry declared the release of the Uzbekistan national in a brief statement on its website, but gave no further details.

The Uzbekistan doctor working for a provincial hospital was snatched last week in Marib. Local sources told Xinhua that the release of the doctor came after a tribal mediation paid a ransom to the kidnappers in Marib province.

Foreigners are frequently kidnapped in Yemen, where the security situation has worsened since 2011 when a political upheaval severely weakened the government control.

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 German in Sanaa. However, abduction of doctors in the Arab country is rarely seen.

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.