Houthi supporters during a demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinians in Sanaa on Oct. 3, 2025. (Credit: Mohammed Huwais/AFP)
Houthi rebels in Yemen stormed a UN building on Saturday, a UN official told AFP, noting that all staff members were safe.
Houthi security forces entered the UN complex in Sanaa “without authorization,” Jean Alam, spokesperson for the UN Resident Coordinator in Yemen, told AFP. “15 international UN staff members” were present during the operation, and according to “the latest information, all personnel at the complex are safe and were able to contact their families,” he added.
The rebels had previously stormed UN offices in Sanaa on Aug. 31, detaining more than 11 staff members, according to the UN. They are suspected of spying for the United States and Israel, a senior Houthi official told AFP.
Saturday’s raid comes as dozens of UN personnel have been arrested in recent months in areas controlled by the Iran-backed Yemeni insurgents. In total, 53 UN staff members are in Houthi hands, and “we will continue to call for an end to their arbitrary detention,” said UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric on Saturday, noting that some have been out of contact for years.
He was responding to a televised speech Thursday by the Houthi leader Abdelmalek al-Houthi, in which he claimed his forces had dismantled “one of the most dangerous espionage cells,” said to be “linked to humanitarian organizations such as the World Food Programme and UNICEF.”
Dujarric called these accusations “dangerous and unacceptable,” adding that they “gravely endanger the safety of UN personnel and humanitarian workers, and compromise vital relief operations.”
In mid-September, the UN coordinator for humanitarian aid in Yemen was officially transferred from Sanaa, the Houthi-controlled capital, to Aden, the provisional capital of the internationally recognized government.
10 years of civil war have plunged Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arabian Peninsula, into one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, according to the UN.
