UN: Yemen’s Houthis detain 20 staff, including 15 foreigners
UN: Yemen’s Houthis detain 20 staff, including 15 foreigners
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The UN’s 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 had made an “unauthorized entry” into their compound, adding the staff there were “safe and accounted for.”
UNICEF’s representative in Yemen, Peter Hawkins, is among the 20 UN employees held by the Houthis in Sanaa, a UN official told AFP on Sunday.
The Houthis had already stormed UN offices in Sanaa on August 31, detaining more than 11 employees, according to the UN.
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.
In a statement on Saturday, Stephane Dujarric, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson, said: “We will continue to call for an end to the arbitrary detention of 53 of our colleagues.”
He was responding to a televised address on Thursday by Houthi leader Abdelmalek al-Huthi, during which he claimed his forces had dismantled “one of the most dangerous spy cells,” which he said was “linked to humanitarian organizations such as the World Food Program and UNICEF.”
The raid on Saturday came with dozens of UN personnel already arrested in recent months in areas controlled by the Iranian-backed militia.
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.
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.
