The Houthi group has detained at least 11 United Nations staff members in Yemen after storming UN offices in the capital, Sanaa, and the port city of Hodeidah, the UN special envoy said on Sunday.
The raids came after an Israeli airstrike on Thursday killed Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi, the Yemeni militant group’s prime minister, along with several of his cabinet members.
A Yemeni security source told the media that the Houthis also arrested dozens of people across Sanaa and nearby areas on suspicion of collaborating with Israel.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the militants forcibly entered World Food Programme facilities, seized UN property and attempted to break into other agency offices.
Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen, condemned “the new wave of arbitrary detentions of UN personnel” and demanded their release “immediately and unconditionally.”
“The work of UN personnel is designed and conducted under the principles of neutrality, impartiality, independence and humanity,” he said. “These arrests violate the fundamental obligation to respect and protect their safety, dignity and ability to carry out their essential work in Yemen.”
According to Grundberg, the Houthis were already holding 23 UN staff, some since 2021. One died in custody earlier this year.
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The group has previously accused detained aid workers of involvement in “an American-Israeli spy network,” an allegation the UN strongly rejects.
Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, Houthi forces have widened their operations beyond Yemen, launching drones and missiles at Israel and targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea in what they call solidarity with the Palestinian cause.
Israel has retaliated with repeated airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen, including last week’s attack on the presidential palace in Sanaa.
Following the death of al-Rahawi, the Houthis vowed to escalate their campaign against Israel.
The group issued a series of statements warning of strong retaliation. Major General Mohammed Nasser Al-Atifi, the Houthi defence minister, said their armed forces are fully prepared to confront Israel and claimed that “America is targeting civilians in Yemen, just as it is doing in Gaza.”
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