Houthis detain 20 staff, including 15 foreigners: UN

The UN’s office in Yemen said on Sunday that 20 of its staff were still being detained by Houthi rebels following a raid on their building in Sanaa the day before.

On Saturday, the UN office had said Houthi security forces had made an “unauthorised entry” into their compound, adding the staff there were “safe and accounted for.”

“Five national staff and fifteen international staff remain detained within the compound,” Jean Alam, spokesman for the UN resident coordinator, said on Sunday.

“The United Nations is in contact with the authorities in Sanaa and with relevant Member States and the Government of Yemen to resolve this serious situation as swiftly as possible, end the detention of all personnel, and restore full control over its facilities in Sanaa.”

A second UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the raid, said the rebels confiscated all communications equipment from the facility, including phones, servers and computers.

Flowers are placed on the coffins of Houthi Chief of Staff Muhammad Al Ghamari, his son, Hussein, 13, during a funeral procession, four days after the group announced Al Ghamari's death, in Sanaa, Yemen, on Monday. Reuters

The rebels had already stormed UN offices in Sanaa on Aug.31, detaining more than 11 employees, according to the UN.

Those employees were suspected of spying for the United States and Israel, a senior Houthi official told AFP at the time on condition of anonymity.

In a statement on Saturday, UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric’s spokesperson said: “We will continue to call for an end to the arbitrary detention of 53 of our colleagues.”

He was responding to a televised address on Thursday by rebel leader Abdelmalek Al Houthi, during which he claimed his forces had dismantled “one of the most dangerous spy cells,” which he said was “linked to humanitarian organisations such as the World Food Programme and UNICEF.” Dujarric described the accusations as “dangerous and unacceptable.”

The raid on Saturday came with dozens of UN personnel already arrested in recent months in areas controlled by the Iranian-backed group. In mid-September, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen was officially transferred from Sanaa, the capital held by the Huthi rebels, to Aden, the interim capital of the internationally recognised government.

Since Aug.31, 2025, 21 UN personnel have been arrested, adding to the 23 current and former members of international NGOs already detained, according to the UN.

Ten years of civil war have plunged Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Arabian Peninsula, into one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, according to the UN.

Agence France-Presse