UN announces that the Houthis are holding 20 of its employees, including 15 foreigners

The UN announced on Sunday that 20 of its employees have been detained by Houthi rebels in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital controlled by these pro-Iranian insurgents, following a new Houthi raid targeting UN staff in the war-torn country.

“Five national staff members and 15 international staff are being held in the UN complex” that the rebels raided on Saturday, Jean Alam, spokesperson for the UN Resident Coordinator in Yemen, told AFP. He added that eleven other national staff had been released after questioning and that the UN was in contact with the Houthis and other parties to “resolve this serious situation as quickly as possible, end the detention of all personnel, and restore full control of its facilities in Sanaa.”

On Saturday, the official told AFP that Houthi security forces had entered the UN complex in Sanaa “without authorization.” The rebels had already stormed UN offices in Sanaa on August 31, detaining about ten employees, according to the UN. The Houthis suspect them of spying for the United States and Israel, according to a senior Houthi official.

The new incident comes as dozens of UN staff have been arrested in recent months in areas controlled by the Iranian-backed Yemeni insurgents. On Thursday, in a televised speech, Houthi leader Abdelmalek al-Houthi claimed that his forces had dismantled “one of the most dangerous espionage cells”, allegedly linked to humanitarian organizations such as the World Food Programme and UNICEF.

These accusations were described on Saturday as “dangerous and unacceptable” by UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, who said they “seriously endanger the safety of UN and humanitarian personnel 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 temporary capital of the internationally recognized government.

Ten years of civil war have plunged Yemen, one of the poorest countries on the Arabian Peninsula, into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to the UN.

Les houthis détiennent 20 employés de l'ONU dont le chef de l'Unicef au Yémen