The United Nations announced that the Houthis in Yemen detained 11 employees of the international organization, demanding their release without any restrictions or conditions.
United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “The de facto Houthi authorities detained 11 local UN employees working in Yemen,” expressing his deep concern about these developments.
Dujarric stated, according to what was reported by the official news website of the United Nations, that they are “actively seeking clarifications from the Houthi authorities regarding the circumstances of these detentions,” stressing the importance of ensuring immediate access to these employees.
The UN official indicated: “Follow-up is being conducted through all available channels, to secure the safe release of all of them, without any conditions, as soon as possible.”
For his part, the Yemeni Minister of Human Rights and Legal Affairs, Ahmed Arman, reported that the Houthis have carried out a massive arrest campaign since last week, targeting dozens of workers in various international and local organizations.
Arman explained that the number of detainees reached 50 employees, including 18 United Nations employees, including four women.
Yemeni human rights sources indicated that the detainees work for various international organizations, including UNICEF, the World Food Program, the Office of the United Nations Envoy, CARE, the Social Fund for Development, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Oxfam, and the Relief and Development Response Organization.
The Yemeni government considered these arrests “an unprecedented escalation and a flagrant violation of international laws and conventions,” expressing its condemnation and denunciation in the strongest terms.
The Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Muammar Al-Eryani, said in a post on “X”: “We condemn and denounce, in the strongest terms, the Iranian terrorist Houthi militia’s launch, on Thursday, of a massive kidnapping campaign, targeting dozens of employees of the United Nations and its affiliated UN agencies, and the office of the UN envoy Hans. Grundberg, and a number of international organizations, working in the kidnapped capital, Sana’a, and a number of governorates forcibly under its control, including women, in an unprecedented escalation and flagrant violation of international laws and conventions.”
Al-Eryani called on all missions, agencies, organizations, and international bodies operating in Yemen to quickly move their headquarters to the temporary capital, Aden, pointing out that: “The time has come to take this measure in order to preserve the lives of their workers, in the first place, and to ensure that they perform their work in an appropriate climate.” .
The Yemenis launched an electronic campaign on social media under the hashtag “#Houthi_kidnaps_employees_of_organizations” to express their anger and dissatisfaction with the Houthis’ violations against employees of civil organizations.
● ندين ونستنكر بأشد العبارات اقدام مليشيا الحوثي الإرهابية التابعة لايران، امس الخميس، على شن حملة اختطافات واسعة طالت العشرات من موظفي الأمم المتحدة والوكالات الاممية التابعة لها، ومكتب المبعوث الاممي هانس جروندبرج، وعدد من المنظمات الدولية، العاملين في العاصمة المختطفة صنعاء…
— معمر الإرياني (@ERYANIM) June 7, 2024
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