The United Nations demands the release of its employees after Houthi forces attacked a facility and arrested staff in Sanaa.
Published on October 19, 2025
Yemen’s Houthi authorities have arrested around two dozen United Nations staff after raiding another UN-run facility in the capital Sanaa, the UN has confirmed.
Jean Alam, spokesperson for the U.N. resident coordinator in Yemen, said the staff were arrested inside the compound in Hada district on Sunday.
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Those detained include at least five Yemeni employees and 15 international staff. Eleven other UN personnel were briefly questioned and then released.
Alam said the UN is in direct contact with the Houthis and other relevant actors “to resolve this serious situation as quickly as possible, end the detention of all personnel and restore full control of its facilities in Sanaa.”
Another U.N. official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said Houthi forces confiscated all communications equipment inside the facility, including computers, phones and servers.
The staff are believed to be from several UN agencies, including the World Food Program (WFP), children’s agency UNICEF and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The incident follows a sustained crackdown by the Houthis against the UN and other international humanitarian organizations operating in territory under their control, including Sanaa, the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and the northern province of Saada.
More than 50 staff members have now been detained, according to UN figures.
Houthis say UN staff spy for Israel
The Houthis have repeatedly accused detained UN staff and employees of NGOs and foreign embassies of spying on behalf of the United States and Israel, allegations the UN has denied.
In response to previous arrests, the UN suspended its operations in Saada earlier this year and moved its main humanitarian coordinator in Yemen from Sanaa to Aden, seat of the internationally recognized government.
In a statement released on Saturday, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, Stéphane Dujarric, warned: “We will continue to call for an end to the arbitrary detention of 53 of our colleagues.”
Dujarric was responding to a televised speech by Houthi leader Abdelmalek al-Houthi, who claimed his group had dismantled “one of the most dangerous spy cells”, alleging it was “linked to humanitarian organizations such as the World Food Program and UNICEF”. Dujarric said the accusations were “dangerous and unacceptable.”
Saturday’s raid comes against a backdrop of a sharp escalation in detentions. Since August 31, 2025 alone, at least 21 UN staff members have been arrested, alongside 23 current and former employees of international NGOs, the UN said.
Ten years of conflict have left Yemen, already one of the Arab world’s poorest countries, facing what the UN describes as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with millions of people relying on aid to survive.
