Yemen Monitor/Washington/Exclusive:
Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said on Monday that the Houthi armed group is detaining around 130 international and local organizations workers.
Power said in tweets on “X” : “In early June, Houthi authorities in Yemen launched a series of arrests of UN, NGO, civil society, and humanitarian workers.”
She added that the Houthi group “arrested dozens of staff from 29 organizations – around 130 of whom remain in Houthi custody and their fate remains unknown till now.”
A security official told Yemen Monitor on Sunday that “more than 85 organization workers were arrested, including at least 5 women.”
On August 3, the Houthis raided the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, three days after the office was ordered to close.
A source told Yemen Monitor that the Houthi group immediately confiscated the UN’s documents and property within the offices, seizing most of the electronic storage units, which contain most of the data, correspondence, and documents of the commission.
Among the detainees are 6 working in the office of the commissioner, 3 from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2 from the World Food Programme, 2 from the World Health Organization, 1 from the office of the UN envoy, and dozens in US, German, and European organizations, according to officials who spoke to Yemen Monitor.
