Yemen’s Houthi rebels have detained at least 15 Yemeni employees of UN agencies and other aid organizations, officials from the internationally backed government revealed on Friday.
The officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said armed intelligence officers belonging to the Houthi group arrested nine UN employees, three employees of the US-funded pro-democracy group National Democratic Institute and three of a local human rights group in a series of raids on Thursday.
Other sources who spoke to the Associated Press confirmed the detention of UN employees, saying they include staff from the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), the UN Development Programme, the World Food Programme and the office of the UN special envoy to Yemen.
Local reports suggest that in addition to the 15 reported detentions, there have been others arrested in a new crackdown this week in Houthi-controlled areas.
The local Al-Masdar Online news outlet reported Friday that dozens of UN staffers and workers at local organizations in Sanaa have been detained by Houthis in the past week. Security officials who spoke to the outlet said the arrests come as part of a campaign against those the group accuses of “collaborating with the enemies.”
The Mayyun Organization for Human Rights, a local nongovernmental group based in Aden, condemned “in the strongest terms” the recent detentions, which it said amounted to “a violation of the privileges and immunities of UN employees granted to them under international law.”
In a statement released on Friday, the organization called on the Houthis to reveal the fate of the detainees and immediately release them.
Citing its own sources, Mayyun said 18 people were arrested at their homes in the Houthi-controlled provinces of Amran, Hodeidah, Saada and Saana.
Mayyun named still other aid groups whose employees were taken, including UNICEF, OXFAM, Save the Children and the local Responsiveness for Relief and Development civil society group, among others.
Neither the United Nations nor the Houthis have commented on the reports so far.
The Iran-backed Houthis took control of Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014 and expelled the internationally recognized government, which is now based in the southern city of Aden. The Houthi takeover prompted a civil war and pushed neighboring Saudi Arabia to intervene at the head of a military coalition of Arab nations in support of the government in 2015. The Houthis now control much of the country’s northern territory as well as the key Red Sea port city of Hodeidah in the west.
Since then, the Houthis have launched frequent crackdowns in their areas of control against aid workers, journalists, political opponents and activists.
A Houthi-controlled court sentenced 44 people to death on June 1, including Adnan al-Harazi, the CEO of Prodigy Systems, a Sanaa-based company that developed systems for registering and authenticating distribution of aid in the war-torn country. The defendants were charged with “collaborating with the enemy.”
Several UN staffers have been arrested in the past years, including two UNESCO and OHCHR employees in 2023. UN agencies have repeatedly called for their release.
“This is a profoundly alarming situation as it reveals a complete disregard for the rule of law,” the UN Human Rights Office said in a statement back in November 2023.
Over the years, the Houthis have also detained former officials of the long-closed US Embassy in Sanaa. Around 20 of them are believed to be still held by the group.
The latest arrest campaign coincides with increasing regional tensions amid Israel’s war in Gaza. The Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile attacks against commercial vessels passing through the Red Sea it claims are linked to Israel, in support of the Palestinian Hamas group.
