Yemen’s Houthis detain 11 UN employees in unclear circumstances
Aid group workers also taken as UN says it is trying to secure access to its personnel and clarify the situation around the detentions
Yemen’s Houthis have detained 11 Yemeni employees of UN agencies under unclear circumstances, authorities say, as the militia group faces increasing financial pressure and airstrikes from a US-led coalition.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said 11 UN staffers had been taken.
“We are very concerned about these developments, and we’re actively seeking clarification from the Houthi de facto authorities regarding the circumstances of these detentions and, most importantly, to ensure the immediate access to those UN personnel,” Dujarric said in New York on Friday.
“We’re pursuing all available channels to secure the safe and unconditional release of all of them as rapidly as possible.
Of the 11, the UN said nine were men and two were women. Six worked for the UN’s human rights agency, while one each worked for its special envoy’s office, its development arm, Unicef, the World Food Program and Unesco.
People working for other aid groups also have been detained.
The Mayyun Organisation for Human Rights named other aid groups whose employees were detained by the Houthis across four provinces that the rebel group holds – Amran, Hodeida, Saada and Saana.
“We condemn in the strongest terms this dangerous escalation, which constitutes a violation of the privileges and immunities of United Nations employees granted to them under international law, and we consider it to be oppressive, totalitarian, blackmailing practices to obtain political and economic gains,” the organisation said in a statement.
Save the Children said it was “concerned of the whereabouts of one of our staff members in Yemen and doing everything we can to ensure his safety and wellbeing”. The group declined to elaborate.
Care International also said one of its staffers had been detained without being given a reason. It was “working to get more information”, a spokesperson said.
Other groups also are believed to have staff who were taken as well, although they did not acknowledge it publicly.
Yemen’s Houthis and their affiliated media organisations did not discuss the detentions. Instead, military spokesperson Brig Gen Yahya Saree claimed attacks on Friday night on ships that hadn’t reported damage or been acknowledged by international authorities.
Human Rights Watch, quoting family members of those detained, said: “Houthi authorities have not revealed the locations of the people they detained or allowed them to communicate with their employers or families.”
A Researcher with the organisation, Niku Jafarnia, called for their release and said the Houthis should “stop arbitrarily detaining and forcibly disappearing people”.
Activists, lawyers and others drafted an open letter online, calling on the Houthis to immediately release those detained, because if they did not, it “helps isolate the country from the world”.
The Iran-backed Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital nearly a decade ago and have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition since shortly after, have been targeting shipping throughout the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
But while gaining more attention internationally, the secretive group has cracked down at dissent at home, including recently sentencing 44 people to death.
The US military’s Central Command said the Houthis launched four anti-ship ballistic missiles over the past day that caused no damage. Separately, US forces destroyed two missiles, five drones and one patrol boat, it said, something not acknowledged by the Houthis.
The militia did report new US-led airstrikes on Friday hitting around the Red Sea port city of Hodeida and, later, in the capital, Sana’a. Several hit Hodeida’s airport, the Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said, where the rebels are believed to have launched attacks previously targeting shipping in the region.
Bloomberg reported separately on Thursday that the US planned to further increase economic pressure on the Houthis by blocking their revenue sources, including a planned $1.5bn Saudi payment to cover salaries for government employees in militia-held territory.
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