UN agencies, NGOs concerned over staff detained by Yemen’s Houthis
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Houthi soldiers standing guard as senior Houthi leader Muhammad Ali al-Houthi (centre) delivers a speech during an anti-Israel rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on Oct 7.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Follow topic:
DUBAI – UN agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on Oct 12 expressed “grave concern” over the referral for criminal prosecution of a large number of their staff who have been “arbitrarily detained” by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and renewed calls for their immediate release.
The Iran-backed Houthis have detained dozens of staff from the UN and other humanitarian organisations, most of them since June, claiming they are members of a “US-Israeli spy network”, a charge the UN denies.
“We are extremely concerned about the reported referral to ‘criminal prosecution’ by the Houthi de facto authorities of a significant number of arbitrarily detained colleagues,” said a statement signed by principals of affected UN entities and international NGOs.
The Houthi authorities have not issued any announcement in this regard.
The signatories of the statement included World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Unesco head Audrey Azoulay, UN human rights chief Volker Turk and Oxfam International executive director Amitabh Behar.
The Houthis have kidnapped, arbitrarily detained and tortured hundreds of civilians, including UN and NGO workers, since the start of Yemen’s civil war in 2014, according to rights groups.
In June, the Houthis detained 13 UN personnel, including six employees of the Human Rights Office, and more than 50 NGO staff and an embassy staff member.
The Houthis claimed they had arrested “an American-Israeli spy network” operating under the cover of humanitarian organisations – allegations emphatically rejected by the UN Human Rights Office.
Two other UN human rights staff had already been detained since November 2021 and August 2023, respectively. They are all being held incommunicado.
In early August, the Houthis stormed the office of UN refugee agency UNHCR, forced staff to hand over the keys and seized documents and property, before returning it later that month.
The signatories of the statement on Oct 12 renewed their “urgent appeal for the immediate and unconditional release” of all detained staff.
The Houthis overran Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014 and hold most of the country’s main population centres, forcing the internationally recognised government to flee to Aden.
A Saudi-led coalition intervened to prop up the beleaguered government the following year.
The war in Yemen has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Fighting has significantly decreased since the negotiation of a six-month truce by the UN in April 2022. AFP
