Amnesty International Calls on Houthis to Immediately Release All Arbitrarily Detained Individuals

Yemen Monitor/Newsroom:

Amnesty International said today that the Houthi group must urgently investigate the death of a UN humanitarian worker with the World Food Program while in detention, who had been arbitrarily detained since January 23, 2025, in a Houthi-run detention center in northern Yemen. The employee’s name has not been officially released.

“The news of the death of a UN humanitarian worker while in detention in a Houthi-run detention center is truly horrific. There must be an urgent, independent, effective, and impartial investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death,” said Diala Haidar, Yemen Researcher at Amnesty International.

She stressed that the armed group has a well-documented history of using torture and other forms of ill-treatment in its detention centers, raising concerns that this humanitarian worker may have died as a result of torture or other ill-treatment.

“This death in custody adds to concerns about the safety and well-being of all others still arbitrarily detained in Houthi-run detention centers, including more than 65 staff members of UN agencies and Yemeni and international civil society organizations.”

She added: “The de facto Houthi authorities must immediately release all individuals they are arbitrarily detaining, including those being held solely in connection with their human rights or humanitarian work.”

According to the organization: “Starting on May 31, 2024, and over the course of two weeks, the Houthis carried out a series of raids in areas under their control and arbitrarily arrested 13 UN staff members and at least 50 staff members of Yemeni and international civil society organizations. To date, only three people have been released – one UN staff member and two NGO staff members. Between January 23 and 25, 2025, the Houthis conducted another wave of arrests and arbitrarily detained eight UN staff members, including the UN employee who was reported to have died in detention on February 11. All detainees are being held without charge and without access to a lawyer or their families.”

“The waves of arrests targeting local and international humanitarian and civil society workers are exacerbating the already desperate humanitarian situation in Yemen, where at least 80% of the population relies on aid to survive, according to the UN. It is the Yemeni civilians who are in dire need of assistance who will pay the price for this brutal campaign,” said Diala Haidar.

“Instead of threatening and obstructing human rights and humanitarian aid workers who feel increasingly at risk of arrest and reprisals for doing their jobs, the Houthis should facilitate their work and the movement of aid so that they can reach the millions of people in Yemen who are currently in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance,” she said.