The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen raided a United Nations compound in the occupied capital of Sanaa on Saturday and took 20 employees hostage, the latest of several mass kidnappings the Houthis have conducted against U.N. personnel.
U.N. spokesman Jean Alam told the Associated Press (AP) on Sunday that 20 U.N. staffers are being held prisoner at the compound in Sanaa, including five Yemeni nationals and 15 international personnel. Another 11 staffers were released by the Houthis after questioning.
Alam said the U.N. was in contact with the Houthis, and unspecified “other parties,” to “resolve this serious situation as swiftly as possible, end the detention of all personnel, and restore full control” over U.N. facilities in Sanaa.
Another U.N. official told AP the prisoners included employees of the World Food Program (WFP), UNICEF, and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The second official said the Houthis seized phones and computers from the U.N. compound, in addition to taking staffers prisoner.
The National reported on Saturday that one of the detainees is Peter Hawkins, the UNICEF representative in Yemen.
Mawan Ali Noman, ambassador to the United Nations from the internationally recognized legitimate government of Yemen, advised the U.N. to suspend all operations in territory controlled by the insurgents.
Noman accused the U.N. of “long inaction and appeasement” toward the Houthi insurgency, which will “continue its policy of blackmailing and arbitrary detentions of innocent civilians” unless firmer action is taken.
“The lives of all UN employees are in real danger,” he warned.
“Houthi loyalists are escalating calls for public executions of alleged informants as the group continues to detain Yemenis connected to foreign embassies, NGOs, aid organizations and consultancies. Time is running out for the international community to intervene before it is too late,” said Mohammed Albasha, founder of a U.S.-based risk advisory newsletter called the Basha Report.
Albasha told The National that the Houthi kidnapping binge was the prelude to an international media campaign that will “accuse the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel of recruiting spies from within U.N. agencies.”
The Houthis have made such accusations each time they took U.N. prisoners captive. U.N. officials, including Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, deny that any of their staffers worked as spies.
“We will continue to call for an end to the arbitrary detention of 53 of our colleagues,” Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Saturday, referring to the total number of U.N. personnel now held captive by the Houthis.
Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi gave a speech on Thursday in which he claimed his forces have arrested “spy cells” who “operated under humanitarian cover” to provide “information and coordinates to the enemy” to facilitate air strikes. He specifically claimed staffers for the WFP and UNICEF were working for Israel as spies.
The Houthi leader claimed he had “evidence that these cells used advanced technical devices to breach national communications.”
The Houthis overthrew the Yemeni government and captured the capital city of Sanaa in 2014. The deposed government now operates from the port city of Aden. The Iran-supported Houthi insurgency has turned Yemen into one of the world’s worst humanitarian disaster areas. The Houthis’ slogan is “Allah Is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, a Curse Upon the Jews.”
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