United Nations demands the merchandise of its employees aft Houthi forces raided a installation and detained unit successful Sanaa.
Published On 19 Oct 2025
Yemen’s Houthi authorities person detained astir 2 twelve United Nations employees aft raiding different UN-run installation successful the superior Sanaa, the UN has confirmed.
Jean Alam, spokesperson for the UN’s nonmigratory coordinator successful Yemen, said unit were detained wrong the compound successful the city’s Hada territory connected Sunday.
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Those held see astatine slightest 5 Yemeni employees and 15 planetary personnel. A further 11 UN unit were concisely questioned and aboriginal released.
Alam said the UN is successful nonstop interaction with the Houthis and different applicable actors “to resoluteness this superior concern arsenic swiftly arsenic possible, extremity the detention of each personnel, and reconstruct afloat power implicit its facilities successful Sanaa”.
A abstracted UN official, who spoke to The Associated Press connected information of anonymity, said Houthi forces confiscated each connection instrumentality wrong the facility, including computers, phones and servers.
The unit reportedly beryllium to respective UN agencies, among them the World Food Programme (WFP), the children’s bureau UNICEF and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The incidental follows a sustained crackdown by the Houthis connected the UN and different planetary assistance organisations operating successful territory nether their control, including Sanaa, the Red Sea larboard metropolis of Hodeidah, and Saada state successful the north.
According to UN figures, much than 50 unit members person present been detained.
Houthis assertion UN unit are spying for Israel
The Houthis person repeatedly accused detained UN unit and employees of overseas NGOs and embassies of espionage connected behalf of the United States and Israel, allegations that the UN has denied.
In absorption to erstwhile detentions, the UN suspended operations successful Saada earlier this twelvemonth and relocated its apical humanitarian coordinator successful Yemen from Sanaa to Aden, the spot of the internationally recognised government.
In a connection connected Saturday, UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stephane Dujarric warned: “We volition proceed to telephone for an extremity to the arbitrary detention of 53 of our colleagues.”
Dujarric was responding to a televised code by Houthi person Abdelmalek al-Houthi, who claimed his radical had dismantled “one of the astir unsafe spy cells”, alleging it was “linked to humanitarian organisations specified arsenic the World Food Programme and UNICEF”. Dujarric said the accusations were “dangerous and unacceptable”.
Saturday’s raid comes amid a crisp escalation successful detentions. Since August 31, 2025, alone, astatine slightest 21 UN unit person been arrested, alongside 23 existent and erstwhile employees of planetary NGOs, the UN said.
Ten years of struggle person near Yemen, already 1 of the poorest countries successful the Arab world, facing what the UN describes arsenic 1 of the gravest humanitarian crises globally, with millions reliant connected assistance for survival.