UN: Yemen\u2019s Houthis detain 20 staff, including 15 foreigners
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\nThe UN\u2019s office in Yemen announced Sunday that 20 of its staff were still being detained by the Houthi militia following a raid on their building in Sanaa the day before, Al Arabiya English reported.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, the UN office had said Houthi security forces had made an \u201cunauthorized entry\u201d into their compound, adding the staff there were \u201csafe and accounted for.\u201d<\/p>\n
UNICEF\u2019s representative in Yemen, Peter Hawkins, is among the 20 UN employees held by the Houthis in Sanaa, a UN official told AFP on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Houthis had already stormed UN offices in Sanaa on August 31, detaining more than 11 employees, according to the UN.<\/p>\n
Those employees were suspected of spying for the United States and Israel, a senior Houthi official told AFP at the time on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Saturday, Stephane Dujarric, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres\u2019 spokesperson, said: \u201cWe will continue to call for an end to the arbitrary detention of 53 of our colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was responding to a televised address on Thursday by Houthi leader Abdelmalek al-Huthi, during which he claimed his forces had dismantled \u201cone of the most dangerous spy cells,\u201d which he said was \u201clinked to humanitarian organizations such as the World Food Program and UNICEF.\u201d<\/p>\n
The raid on Saturday came with dozens of UN personnel already arrested in recent months in areas controlled by the Iranian-backed militia.<\/p>\n
In mid-September, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen was officially transferred from Sanaa, the capital held by the Houthis, to Aden, the interim capital of the internationally recognized government.<\/p>\n
Since August 31, 2025, 21 UN personnel have been arrested, adding to the 23 current and former members of international NGOs already detained, according to the UN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UN: Yemen\u2019s Houthis detain 20 staff, including 15 foreigners ———————————— The UN\u2019s office in Yemen announced Sunday that 20 of its staff were still being detained by the Houthi militia following a raid on their building in Sanaa the day before, Al Arabiya English reported. On Saturday, the UN office had said Houthi security forces …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[2931],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yemen"],"yoast_head":"\n