UN suspends all movement into Houthi-controlled Yemen after 7 staffers detained
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Hashim Sheikh - . January 25, 2025
- . Update: January 25, 2025 4:17 pm
The United Nations has suspended all staff movement in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen after the Iran-backed rebels detained seven UN employees of the global agency.
Issuing a statement Friday, UN secretary general António Guterres called for the “immediate and unconditional” release of all aid staff held in Yemen, as per Reuters.
“Their continued arbitrary detention is unacceptable,” Guterres said, affirming that the UN was working to get the employees released. “The United Nations will continue to work through all possible channels to secure the safe and immediate release of those arbitrarily detained.”
Since the middle of last year, dozens of staff from the UN and other humanitarian organizations have been detained by the Houthis in Yemen.
Guterres also underlined that the “continued targeting of UN personnel and its partners negatively impacts our ability to assist millions of people in need in Yemen”.
In the wake of the incident, the UN suspended “all official movements into and within” Houthi-held areas, the office of the resident UN coordinator for Yemen confirmed.
Earlier this week, US president Donald Trump redesigned Houthis as a foreign terrorist organisation. According to an executive order singed by the White House on Wednesday, any UN agency or NGO working in Yemen and receiving US funding will undergo a review.
In June, Houthis detained 13 UN personnel, including six employees of the Human Rights Office, and over 50 NGO staff and an embassy staff member.
Over the past three years, the Houthis have held around 20 Yemeni employees of the US embassy in Sanaa. In the aftermath, the embassy suspended operations in the crisis-hit region years ago.
Yemen has been struggling with a humanitarian crisis for years now. Roughly 80% of the Yemen population, including more than 12 million children, are in need of urgent humanitarian aid.
