- At least nine Yemeni staff members of United Nations agencies have been detained by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, officials said on Friday. Others working for aid groups have also been detained.
- It is not clear what the reason was for the detentions. The United Nations declined to immediately comment.
- The war in Yemen has killed more than 150,000 people, including combatants and civilians, and is one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, with thousands dead. An investigation has found that Houthi prisoners have been tortured.
At least nine Yemeni personnel United Nations Yemen’s Houthi rebels have detained a group of agencies under unclear circumstances, officials said on Friday, as the insurgents face growing financial pressure and air strikes from the US-led coalition. Others working for aid groups may also have been detained.
The arrests come as the Houthis have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition since they seized Yemen’s capital nearly a decade ago and have targeted ships in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
But as it has gained more international attention, the secretive group has also cracked down on dissent domestically, including recently sentencing 44 people to death.
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Regional officials confirmed the U.N. detentions, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief journalists. Several of those detained include staff members. UN human rights agencyOne of the men worked for its development programme, the World Food Programme, and the office of its special envoy, officials said. The wife of one of the detainees was also detained.
The United Nations declined to immediately comment.
The UN staff was also identified by the Mayoun Organization for Human Rights, which named other aid groups whose staff have been detained by the Houthis in four provinces – Amran, Hodeida, Saada and Sanaa. Those groups did not immediately acknowledge the detentions.
“We strongly condemn this dangerous escalation, which violates the privileges and immunities granted to UN staff under international law, and we consider it a repressive, authoritarian, blackmailing practice aimed at achieving political and economic gains,” the organization said in a statement.
Activists, lawyers and others also released an open online letter urging the Houthis to immediately release those detained, because if they do not do so it will “help further isolate the country from the world.”
Yemen’s Houthi rebels and their allied media organizations did not immediately acknowledge the detentions. However, the Iran-backed insurgents had planned weekly mass demonstrations after Friday afternoon prayers, when Houthi officials usually speak out on their actions.
It is not clear what the actual reason for the detention was. However, it came at a time when the Houthis are facing a shortage of sufficient currency to support the economy in the areas they occupy – something indicated by their move to introduce a new coin in the Yemeni currency, the rial. Yemen’s exiled government in Aden and other countries criticized the move as the Houthis have started resorting to counterfeit currency. Authorities in Aden have also demanded all banks to move their headquarters there.
“Internal tensions and conflicts could spiral out of control and lead Yemen to complete economic collapse,” warned Yemeni journalist Mohammed Ali Thamer in an analysis published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Bloomberg reported separately on Thursday that the United States plans to step up economic pressure on the Houthis by blocking their revenue sources, including a $1.5 billion Saudi Arabian plan to pay salaries for government workers in rebel-held territory.
The Houthis’ attacks on ships have helped divert attention from their domestic problems and stalemated war. But US-led airstrikes targeting the group over the past few months have caused casualties and damage to them.
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The Houthis have taken thousands of people captive during the war. An AP investigation found some detainees were burned with acid, hung by their wrists for weeks or beaten with sticks. Meanwhile, the Houthis have hired child soldiers and indiscriminately laid landmines in the conflict.
The Houthis have previously detained four other U.N. staff — two in 2021 and two in 2023 — who are still being held by the militia group. In 2023, the U.N. human rights agency described those detentions as “extremely worrying as they reflect a total disregard for the rule of law.”
The Houthis are members of the minority Shia Zaydi sect of Islam that ruled northern Yemen for 1,000 years until 1962.
