Yemen Monitor/Monitoring Unit/Special
Activists and human rights organizations have denounced a Houthi kidnapping campaign that has targeted a number of UN and other Yemeni organization employees.
The Yemeni government, aid groups, and the United Nations said the armed group has abducted more than ten aid workers, including 11 UN staff, in what appears to be a coordinated crackdown.
They said the abductions underscore the perilous mission facing aid workers in Yemen.
“The armed group has detained 11 national UN staff members working in Yemen,” said Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the United Nations. “We are pursuing all available channels to ensure the safe and unconditional release of all of them as soon as possible.”
The MENA Human Rights Organization said that at least 18 aid workers have been abducted in four Houthi-controlled regions.
The aid organization said the “simultaneous” abductions took place in Sana’a, the main port of Hodeida, Amran and Saada.
Human Rights Watch said the Houthis “appear to be arbitrarily detaining individuals because of their work,” adding that the whereabouts of many remain unknown.
Human Rights Watch said that among the abductees are a husband and children, aged three years and nine months, of a woman working with a civil society organization in Yemen.
The Houthis have abducted, arbitrarily detained, and tortured hundreds of civilians, including UN and NGO workers, since the conflict in Yemen began in 2014, according to human rights groups.
The internationally recognized Yemeni government has condemned the “large-scale kidnapping campaign,” saying it targeted “dozens of employees of UN agencies, the office of UN envoy Hans Grundberg, and many international organizations operating” in the capital Sana’a and other Houthi-run areas.
Information Minister Muammar al-Eryani, in a statement on X , described it as “an unprecedented escalation and a flagrant violation of international laws and conventions.”
Many aid workers have been killed or abducted throughout the conflict, forcing international agencies to temporarily suspend operations or withdraw international staff as a security precaution.
“The actions of the Houthis are undermining essential humanitarian work in Yemen at a time when the majority of Yemenis are not getting enough of the basics like food and water,” said Nico Gavarnia, a Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch, to AFP.
Human rights activist Hoda al-Sarari commented: “The frantic arrest campaign by the Houthi group is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the immunity granted to UN staff.”
For her part, activist Fatima al-Saqaf said that the Houthis are arresting employees of international organizations in Sana’a who have continued to work in Yemen and in their country and with UN bodies whose main goal is to improve the situation in Yemen.
She added: “Quite simply, the Houthis do not care about any means of peace and only care about one peace: the implementation of their sectarian and backward project forcibly on the masses of Yemenis!”
Last year, the Save the Children charity suspended operations for 10 days in northern Yemen after the death of one of its employees while in custody in the rebel-held capital.
A longtime employee of the UN World Food Programme was also shot dead in the city of Taiz by unknown gunmen.
