Houthis detain at least 11 UN workers in raids on two agencies in Sana’a | Yemen

The Iranian-backed Houthis raided offices of the UN’s food, health and children’s agencies in Yemen’s capital, detaining at least 11 employees, as the rebels tightened security across Sana’a after the Israeli killing of their prime minister and several cabinet members.

The UN envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said on Sunday evening: “I strongly condemn the new wave of arbitrary detentions of UN personnel today in Sana’a and Hodeidah … as well as the forced entry into UN premises and seizure of UN property. At least 11 UN personnel were detained.”

He demanded that they be “immediately and unconditionally” released.

Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP), earlier told the Associated Press that security forces raided the agencies’ offices in the Houthi-controlled capital Sana’a on Sunday morning.

She said at least one staff member was detained in the city and others reportedly detained in other areas.

“WFP reiterates that the arbitrary detention of humanitarian staff is unacceptable,” Etefa said.

The offices of the World Health Organization and Unicef were also raided, according to a UN official and a Houthi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The UN official said armed forces raided the offices and questioned employees in the car park. He said contact with several other WFP and Unicef staff members were lost and that they were likely also detained.

Ammar Ammar, a spokesperson for Unicef, said a number of the agency’s staff members were detained, and it was seeking additional information from the Houthis.

Both Etefa and Ammar said their agencies were conducting “a comprehensive head count” of their employees in Sana’a and other Houthi-held areas.

The raids were the latest in a long-running Houthi crackdown against the UN and other international organisations working in rebel-held areas in Yemen.

They have detained dozens of UN staffers, as well as people associated with aid groups, civil society and the now-closed US embassy in Sana’a. The UN suspended its operations in the Houthi stronghold of Saada in northern Yemen after the rebels detained eight UN staff members in January.

Sunday’s raids came after the killing of the Houthi prime minister and several of his cabinet members in an Israeli strike on Thursday.

It was a blow to the Iran-backed rebels who have launched attacks on Israel and ships in the Red Sea in relation against the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

Among the dead were the prime minister, Ahmed al-Rahawi; the foreign minister Gamal Amer; the deputy prime minister and minister of local development, Mohammed al-Medani; the electricity minister, Ali Seif Hassan; the tourism minister, Ali al-Yafei; and the information minister Hashim Sharafuldin, according to two Houthi officials and the victims’ families.

Also killed was a powerful deputy interior minister, Abdel-Majed al-Murtada, the Houthi officials said.

They were targeted during a “routine workshop held by the government to evaluate its activities and performance over the past year”, a Houthi statement said on Saturday, two days after the strike.

The Houthis said a funeral for all those killed was scheduled for Monday in Sabeen Square in central Sana’a.

The defence minister, Mohamed Nasser al-Atifi, survived the attack, while Abdel-Karim al-Houthi, the interior minister and one of the most powerful figures in the rebel group, did not attend the Thursday meeting, the Houthi officials said.

Thursday’s strike came after the Houthis attacked Israel on 21 August with a ballistic missile that its military described as the first cluster bomb the rebels had launched at Israel since 2023. The missile, which the Houthis said was aimed at Ben Gurion airport, prompted air raid sirens across central Israel and Jerusalem, forcing millions into shelters.

The Houthis are likely to escalate their attacks on Israel and ships in the Red Sea, after they vowed in July to target merchant ships belonging to any company that does business with Israeli ports, regardless of nationality.

“Our military approach of targeting the Israeli enemy, whether with missiles, drones or a naval blockade, is continuous, steady and escalating,” al-Houthi, the group’s secretive leader, said in a televised speech on Sunday.