Country: Yemen Source: Human Rights Watch Critical Humanitarian Aid Delivery Stymied(Beirut) – The de facto Houthi authorities in Yemen should immediately and unconditionally release dozens of staff from the United Nations and Yemeni and international civil society organizations who were arbitrarily detained over the course of the past year, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. The Houthis’ arbitrary arrests of humanitarian workers have a direct impact on the delivery of lifesaving assistance to people in critical need of aid.Starting on May 31, 2024, the Houthis carried out a series of raids in areas under their control, arbitrarily detaining 13 UN staff and at least 50 staff from Yemeni and international civil society organizations. Between January 23 and 25, 2025, the Houthis caried out another wave of arrests, arbitrarily detaining an additional eight UN staff members. The arrests prompted the UN to announce in January that it would suspend all official movements into and within areas under Houthi control.“It is shocking that most of these UN and civil society staff have now spent almost a year in arbitrary detention for simply doing their work in providing medical and food assistance or promoting human rights, peace, and dialogue,” said Diala Haidar, Yemen researcher at Amnesty International. “They should have never been arrested in the first place.”Governments with influence on the Houthis and the UN leadership should step up efforts to secure the release of the nongovernmental organization (NGO) and UN staff.The Houthis have released only 7 people: 1 UN staff member, 5 staff of nongovernmental groups, and 1 staff member of a diplomatic mission. At least 50 others rounded up by the Houthis over the past year remain detained without adequate access to lawyers or their families, and without charge.On February 11, an aid worker from the World Food Programme died in Houthi custody. His death heightens fears for the safety and well-being of others who remain arbitrarily detained in Houthi-run detention centers, given the Houthis’ track record of torture and other ill-treatment against detainees.These brutal waves of arrests have also exacerbated an already desperate humanitarian situation in Yemen because many of those arrested were working to provide assistance or protection to those most in need in northern Yemen, the organizations said. The Houthis need to immediately free everyone arbitrarily detained.On February 10, the UN announced that it had suspended all its activities in Saada in response to the Houthis’ detention of six of its humanitarian workers there in January.The Houthis’ arrests are part of a wider ongoing attack on civic space in areas they control. These arrests were also accompanied by a Houthi-led media campaign accusing humanitarian organizations and their staff of “conspiring” against the country’s interests through their projects and warning them of the dangers of “espionage.”Since 2015, Amnesty International has documented scores of cases in which Houthi authorities appeared to have brought spying charges to persecute political opponents and silence peaceful dissent.Local and international civil society organizations play a critical role in alleviating Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. Despite drastic funding cuts from donor states, particularly the US, that are putting the health and human rights of millions of people in Yemen at risk, aid workers on the ground are delivering lifesaving assistance and protection services, including in Houthi-controlled territories of Yemen.Houthi authorities have targeted human rights and humanitarian workers before. Four Yemeni staff members from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) arrested in 2021 and 2023 remain arbitrarily detained and have been held incommunicado since their arrest. In September 2023, Houthis arrested Hisham al-Hakimi, the safety and security director at Save the Children, and held him incommunicado. He died on October 25, 2023, while arbitrarily detained.“The Houthis need to facilitate the work of humanitarian workers and the movement of aid,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “All countries with influence, as well as the United Nations and civil society organizations, should use all the tools at their disposal to urge the release of those arbitrarily detained and to provide support to their family members.”