UN suspends operations in Houthi-held areas after staff detained
The United Nations (UN) says it has suspended all activities in Houthi-held areas after the armed group detained several UN personnel in Yemen’s capital Sanaa.
The UN said it was actively negotiating with senior Houthi officials to secure the release of all its detained staff. There has been no official statement from the Houthis yet.
This is not the first time the group has detained UN workers – several staff were detained last year. The Houthis have also detained about 20 Yemeni US Embassy employees over the past three years.
Human rights groups also accuse the movement of abducting, torturing, and arbitrarily detaining hundreds of civilians.
The Iran-backed Houthis have been fighting the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen for nearly a decade. The conflict, which began after the Houthis ousted the then-Yemeni government, has been largely stalled for the past two years.
But the Houthis have drawn renewed international attention in the past fifteen months for targeting ships in the Red Sea and firing rockets toward Israel in what they say is support for Hamas and the Palestinians.
Their actions have triggered retaliatory attacks by the US, Israel and Britain on Houthi positions in Yemen.
Since the ceasefire in Gaza began, the Houthis have said they would reduce their attacks on shipping and stop firing on Israel if Israel maintained the ceasefire.
However, one of President Trump’s first acts upon taking office was to order the Houthis Put back on the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Despite all this, the group remains in control of large areas of Yemen.
The country was the poorest in the Middle East before the war began in 2015. Since then hundreds of thousands of people have died from disease and hunger in fighting or as a result of the conflict.
UN agencies provide a vital lifeline to millions of Yemenis with their food and medical aid.
But they are regularly having problems reaching people in more remote areas outside major towns and cities, with Houthi authorities reported to regularly hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid to areas under their control.
