Yemeni Government Demands Firm International Stance on the Killing of Abductees in Houthi Prisons
Yemen Monitor/Newsroom:
The Yemeni government called on the United Nations and member states of the UN Security Council to take a unified and firm stance against the crimes and violations committed by the Houthis against civilian abductees in their prisons.
This came in a statement issued by the government’s Ministry of Human Rights on Tuesday, commenting on the news of the death of a World Food Program employee in Houthi prisons, according to the official Yemeni news agency.
The statement said that the Ministry of Human Rights received with great sadness the news of the killing of Ahmed Baalawi – a Yemeni in his thirties, an employee of the World Food Program since 2017, due to torture in a Houthi detention center in Sa’ada Governorate after his abduction on January 23, as part of a frenzied campaign and arbitrary arrests that affected many UN employees. They refuse to release them and accuse them of espionage and collaboration in the face of clear silence and weakness from UN representatives.
It added: “The ministry had previously warned of the danger of the continued detention of UN employees and humanitarian agencies, and holds the Humanitarian Coordinator Julien Hans and the UN envoy to Yemen fully responsible for the need to provide a clear picture of what the militias are doing and what it can lead to in terms of what abductees are exposed to in Houthi prisons.”
The ministry affirmed that such crimes do not expire with time and that their perpetrators will not escape punishment sooner or later.
The Yemeni Human Rights body called for “a unified and firm position by the UN Secretary-General and member states of the Security Council against the crimes and violations committed by the Houthi militia.”
Earlier, the World Food Program announced the death of one of its employees while being held by what it described as “local authorities” in northern Yemen.
The program expressed its deep sorrow and anger over this tragic loss, stressing that the deceased had been working in the humanitarian field since 2017, and left behind a wife and two children.
On Monday, the United Nations suspended all its activities in a Yemeni region under Houthi control, due to the risks faced by its staff following new “arbitrary” arrests, according to its statement.
Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the United Nations, said that the international organization has stopped all its operations in the Yemeni governorate of Sa’ada after the Houthi group detained more of its employees.
He added that “This exceptional and temporary measure aims to strike a balance between the need to remain and do our work on the one hand, and ensuring the safety of UN personnel and their partners on the other.”
Late last January, the United Nations announced that the Houthis had arrested 8 new employees, bringing the total to “dozens of employees of non-governmental organizations and the United Nations who have been arrested.”
The Houthis justified the arrests by discovering an “American-Israeli spy network” operating under the cover of humanitarian organizations, accusations that the United Nations strongly rejected.
