Yemen Monitor/Newsroom:
A United Nations employee, detained by the Houthis since last January, died in Sa’ada Governorate, the stronghold of the group’s leader in northern Yemen, according to the World Food Program.
Cindy McCain, Executive Director of the World Food Program, wrote on the X platform, “I am saddened and outraged by the tragic loss of WFP team member Ahmed, who lost his life while being arbitrarily detained in Yemen. Ahmed, who dedicated himself to humanitarian work and was a father of two, played a crucial role in our mission to deliver life-saving food assistance.”
The Chinese news agency “Xinhua” quoted a source in the United Nations in Yemen as saying today, Tuesday, that the employee of the United Nations World Food Program, Ahmed Baalawi, died last night in a Houthi detention center in Sa’ada Governorate.
The source confirmed that Baalawi is a Yemeni national working as an information technology operations officer in the UN program.
Yesterday, 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.
