Gunmen on Saturday seized Yemeni President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s chief of staff, whose nomination as prime minister last year was rejected by Houthi fighters

Gunmen on Saturday seized Yemeni President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi's chief of staff, whose nomination as prime minister last year was rejected by Houthi fighters, an official said.

"An armed group set up a checkpoint in Hada," a southern district of Sanaa, and "captured (Ahmed Awad bin) Mubarak with his companions," an official from the national dialogue secretariat told AFP.

Mubarak is secretary general of the national dialogue on a political transition following the 2012 resignation of veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh after a bloody year-long uprising.

The senior politician was "driven away to an unknown location," the official said, adding that the abductors "are suspected of being Houthi militiamen."

“The abduction allegedly took place to stop Mubarak from presenting a draft of a new constitution to a presidential meeting,” police sources told Reuters.

The details leaked to Yemeni media indicated the new constitution retains a plan for a federal state divided into six regions.