The United Nations has urgently called for the immediate release of 11 of its personnel who have been detained by the Houthi movement in Yemen. The employees were taken in what appears to be a coordinated crackdown across various parts of the conflict-torn country.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric stated that the UN is actively pursuing all available channels to secure the safe and unconditional release of the detained staff. The detainees include two women and nine men who work for five different UN agencies and the UN envoy for Yemen.
The detentions are part of a broader pattern of Houthi actions targeting international aid workers and organizations. In addition to the UN personnel, Houthi intelligence officers have detained three employees of the US-funded pro-democracy group National Democratic Institute (NDI) and three employees of a local human rights group. These actions were confirmed by officials from Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned the detentions, highlighting that the Houthi group’s refusal to disclose the location of the detained individuals could amount to enforced disappearance under international law. The organization has called for immediate transparency and the release of the detainees.
The Houthis, who control Yemen’s capital Sana’a and the northwest of the country, have been involved in a decade-long civil war that has resulted in over 150,000 deaths and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. They have also been involved in recent attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea in support of the war on Gaza, prompting retaliatory airstrikes by the US and its allies.
In the latest series of raids, phones and computers were seized from the homes and offices of the detained workers. The Mayyun Organisation for Human Rights reported that 18 aid workers from various groups were targeted in Amran, Hudaydah, Saada, and Sana’a simultaneously.