CaliToday (20/10/2025): Iranian-backed Houthi rebels stormed a United Nations facility in Yemen’s capital on Sunday, detaining 20 employees in a dramatic escalation of their long-running crackdown on international organizations, a U.N. official confirmed.
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| Houthi supporters dance as they celebrate following the announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a peace plan to pause the fighting, in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman) |
The raid, which took place in Sanaa’s southwestern Hada neighborhood, came just one day after rebels raided a separate U.N. facility in the city, signaling a new and aggressive phase of the Houthi campaign against humanitarian workers.
Jean Alam, a spokesman for the U.N. resident coordinator for Yemen, told The Associated Press that 15 international staff and five Yemeni nationals were among those taken into custody on Sunday. An additional 11 U.N. staffers were also temporarily detained but were subsequently released after extensive questioning.
In a move apparently calculated to cripple U.N. operations, the rebels confiscated all communications equipment from the facility. A second U.N. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive raid, said this included all phones, servers, and computers, effectively blinding the agency’s operations in the capital.
The detained employees work for multiple key U.N. agencies, including the World Food Program (WFP), UNICEF, and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), all of which are critical to staving off famine and disease in the war-torn nation.
The U.N. is now scrambling to de-escalate the crisis. Alam stated that the organization is in direct contact with the Houthis and other parties "to resolve this serious situation as swiftly as possible." The primary goals, he said, are to "end the detention of all personnel, and restore full control over its facilities in Sanaa."
This weekend’s raids are the latest chapter in a systematic campaign by the Houthis against U.N. and other international groups operating in rebel-held territories, including Sanaa, the coastal city of Hodeida, and the rebel stronghold of Sadaa.
The rebels have repeatedly, and without providing evidence, accused the detained staffers of being spies. The United Nations has fiercely denied all such accusations, maintaining that its staff is neutral and focused solely on humanitarian aid.
The human cost of this broader crackdown has been severe. Dozens of people, including over 50 U.N. staffers, have been detained in this wider campaign. Tragically, a World Food Program worker died while in Houthi detention in Sadaa earlier this year.
The Houthi pressure campaign has already forced the U.N. to suspend its operations in Saada province following the detention of eight staffers there in January. Furthermore, the U.N. was compelled to relocate its top humanitarian coordinator in Yemen from the Houthi-controlled capital of Sanaa to Aden, the coastal city that serves as the seat for Yemen's internationally recognized government. This latest mass detention threatens to bring humanitarian work in the nation to a standstill.
