UNITED NATIONS — The heads of six UN agencies and three international humanitarian organizations issued a joint appeal on Thursday The Houthi rebels in Yemen for the immediate release of 17 members of their staff who were recently detained, along with many others also held by the Iran-backed group.
Their call was echoed in a statement from several dozen countries and the European Union ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting on Yemen, where U.N. special envoy Hans Grundberg said the Houthis were holding all prisoners incommunicado in the crackdown.
The Houthis said on Monday they had arrested members of a group “American-Israeli spy network,” days after the arrest of UN and aid agency staff.
Major General Abdulhakim al-Khayewani, chief of the Houthis’ intelligence service, announced the arrests, saying the spy network first operated from the US embassy in the capital Sanaa. After it was closed in 2015 following the Houthis’ takeover of Sanaa and northern Yemen, they “continued their subversive agenda under the cover of international and UN organizations.”
He would not say how many people have been arrested. Houthi authorities released videotaped confessions by 10 Yemenis, some of whom said they had been recruited by the US embassy. None of the UN staff arrested were among them. The Houthis’ claims could not be independently verified.
Samantha Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, strongly condemned the abuse and detention of current and former USAID personnel, as well as UN and NGO workers, and demanded their immediate release.
“These detentions are an affront to both diplomatic norms and the dedication the individuals have shown in supporting the people of Yemen,” she said in a statement. “The Houthis’ efforts to spread disinformation about the role of USAID, the US government, the UN and other international organizations working to improve the lives of the Yemeni people through the use of coerced and fraudulent ‘confessions’ are deplorable .”
The statement from the heads of the UN and aid agencies whose staffers are being held called their detentions “unprecedented – not just in Yemen but globally.”
They asked the Houthis to confirm the exact whereabouts of the detainees and for immediate access, citing international humanitarian law that requires all parties to an armed conflict to respect and protect humanitarian personnel.
“The targeting of humanitarian, human rights and development workers in Yemen must stop,” the joint statement said. “All detainees must be released immediately.”
The statement by UN member states, read by British Ambassador Barbara Woodward outside the Security Council meeting room, strongly condemned the detentions since June 7, demanded the release of all those held, and expressed serious concern about the rapid deterioration of humanitarian situation in Yemen. .
The countries expressed deep concern about the risk of delivering humanitarian aid in Yemen, and called for unfettered access for all humanitarian workers.
The Houthis have been locked in a civil war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, since 2014, when they took control of Sanaa and most of the north.
Grundberg, the U.N. envoy who has been trying to bring both sides back to the negotiating table to end the conflict, called not only for the release of the 13 recently detained U.N. employees — including one of his staff — but also for the release of four other UN staff members. held incommunicado – two since 2021 and two since 2023.
“The United Nations is there to serve the Yemenis,” he told the Security Council. “Such arbitrary detentions are not the expected signal from an actor seeking a mediated solution to the conflict.”
The detentions came as the Houthis have been targeting shipping in the entire Red Sea Corridor about the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
At the same time, their government has faced increasing financial pressure, and the group has cracked down on dissent at home, including the recent sentencing of 45 people to death.
Grundberg expressed concern about the 45 death sentences and reiterated the United Nations’ opposition to the death penalty.
It is unclear what exactly led to the latest arrests. Former employees of the US embassy in Sanaa, which was closed in 2015, have also been arrested and detained by the Houthis.