15 Foreign UN staff confined to Yemen compound by Houthis

Fifteen UN staff have been imprisoned in their own compound in the Yemen’s capital Sanaa since an incursion by the Houthi authorities on Saturday.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the foreign staff are now free to move around the compound and have been in contact with their families and UN agencies, adding: “We hope that they will be free to leave the compound as soon as possible.”

He said five Yemeni staff who were also detained in the compound since Saturday have been released.

In addition, another 53 UN staff remain arbitrarily detained by the Houthis, he said, some since 2021.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Oman on Monday about the detentions, Dujarric said.

The Houthis have controlled most of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, since seizing power in 2014 and early 2015.

The United Nations has repeatedly rejected Houthi accusations that UN staff or UN operations in Yemen were involved in spying. Dujarric last week described the accusations as “extremely worrying".

“And accusations, calling UN staff spies or, as we’ve seen in other contexts, calling them terrorists - all that does is it puts the lives of UN staff everywhere at risk, and it's unacceptable,” he said.