United Nations confirms that eleven of its workers are being held by Yemen’s Houthi rebels

7 (EUROPA PRESS)

The United Nations confirmed this Friday that eleven of its workers in Yemen are being held by the Houthi rebels, asking them for explanations for their detention and demanding their immediate “safe and unconditional release.”

“I can confirm that the Houthi authorities ‘de facto’ have detained eleven United Nations workers working in Yemen,” said the spokesman for the UN General Secretariat, Stephan Dujarric, at a press conference.

“We are very concerned by these developments, and we are actively seeking clarification from the Houthi authorities on the circumstances of these arrests, and most importantly, to guarantee immediate access to these UN personnel,” he said.

Thus, Dujarric has stressed that the United Nations is using “all available channels” to guarantee the release of all of them “as soon as possible.”

HRW CONDEMNATION

For her part, Human Rights Watch (HRW) researcher in Yemen and Bahrain, Niku Jafarnia, has called in a statement for the “immediate” release of all UN employees and workers detained “arbitrarily.”

“Such detentions not only attack the rights of these people but also undermine humanitarian and human rights work in Yemen at a time when the majority of Yemenis do not have adequate access to basic needs such as food and water,” he added.

Relatives and acquaintances of some of the detainees have told HRW that the Houthi authorities have not revealed the location of the detainees or allowed them to communicate with them, which may constitute a crime of forced disappearance under international law, according to the NGO. .

The Houthis, a Yemeni insurgency backed by Iran, have controlled Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and other areas in the north and west of the country since 2015. In recent months they have gained prominence for their attacks in the Red Sea against ships linked to Israel. .

The Yemeni rebels threaten all vessels with some type of Israeli connection in the wake of the Israeli Army’s offensive against the Gaza Strip, while warning of possible attacks on American and British ships in response to the bombings against Yemen.