UN World Food Programme Says Yemen's Houthis Detained Agency Employee

The UN's World Food Programme said that Yemen's Houthis detained one of its employees in the rebel-held capital Sanaa on Sunday, with more staff members feared apprehended elsewhere in the country.

"WFP's offices in Sanaa were entered by local security forces who have detained a staff member, with reports of other detentions (of staff) in other areas," the agency said in a statement to AFP.

It added that it was "urgently seeking additional information" from the Houthi authorities, who seized the capital Sanaa in 2014 and now control large parts of Yemen.

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A security source told AFP that seven WFP employees and three UNICEF workers were arrested on Sunday after their offices had been raided.

The WFP statement said that "the arbitrary detention of humanitarian staff is unacceptable. The safety and security of personnel is essential to carrying out life-saving humanitarian work."

Following an Israeli strike on Sanaa on Thursday that killed the group's prime minister , a Yemeni security source told AFP that Houthi authorities had arrested dozens of people in Sanaa and other areas "on suspicion of collaborating with Israel".

In January, the rebels detained eight UN workers, adding to dozens of UN and aid group personnel held since June 2024.

The Houthis claimed the June arrests included "an American-Israeli spy network" operating under the cover of humanitarian organisations, allegations emphatically rejected by the UN.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in June demanded "their immediate and unconditional release", and lamented the "deplorable tragedy" of the death in detention of a WFP staffer earlier this year.

A decade of civil war has plunged Yemen into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, with more than half of the population relying on aid.

The arrests last year prompted the United Nations to limit its deployments and suspend activities in some regions of the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country.

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