Houthis kidnap 50 UN and aid workers

Yemeni authorities have reiterated their call to the UN and other foreign organizations to move their headquarters from Sanaa, which is controlled by the Houthis, to Aden, where Yemen’s official government is based.

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Yemen’s Houthis have kidnapped at least 50 UN and other foreign workers in the international organization in the city of Sanaa. The Arab news newspaper reported yesterday with reference to Yemen’s Human Rights Minister Ahmed Arman.

According to him, 18 Yemenis working for UN agencies were kidnapped, including the UN Development Programme, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the office of the Yemeni envoy.

At least 32 employees of the US-funded National Democratic Institute, Partners Yemen, German Society for International Cooperation GIZ, Resonate Yemen and other organizations were also abducted.

The Houthi raids continued from Thursday morning until 4 am Friday, the minister said. The rebels entered the homes of Yemenis working for foreign organizations.

The ministry said the Houthis abducted an entire family from their home in Sanaa on May 31. And the next day, searches were conducted in two more houses.

Arman repeated his call for the UN and other foreign organizations to move their headquarters from Houthi-controlled Sanaa to Aden, where Yemen’s official government is based.

“We repeatedly warned the UN that the Houthis’ treatment of their mostly Yemeni personnel would worsen, so we asked to move their headquarters to Aden. But the UN rejected our requests for reasons that were not we know,” he said.

The abductions came after a Houthi-controlled court last month sentenced to death a Yemeni businessman who worked with foreign aid organizations and 43 others on espionage charges.

Human rights groups, journalists and officials condemned the attacks and warned the Houthis that their actions could cause humanitarian organizations to leave the country, depriving Yemenis of life-saving humanitarian aid .

The Information Counselor at the Yemeni Embassy in Cairo Baligh Al-Mekhlafi said that the Houthi campaign against employees of international organizations is related to the sanctions of the central bank against Sanaa-based financial institutions that do not moved their offices to Aden.

On Friday, the Ministry of Transportation in Aden called on travel agencies in Houthi-controlled areas to relocate to Aden.

The previous day, the media reported that the Houthis detained at least nine people working for UN agencies. Later, the organization confirmed this information.

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