Yemen’s Houthis seized UN rights office in Sanaa, UN official says

Yemen’s Houthi rebels stormed the headquarters of the United Nations’ Human Rights Office in the capital, Sanaa, seizing documents, furniture and vehicles, a senior UN official said Tuesday.

The seizure was the latest move in a crackdown by the Houthis on people working with the UN, aid agencies and foreign embassies. The crackdown comes as the Iranian-backed rebels have been targeting shipping throughout the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

The rebels took over the UN Human Rights Office’s premises in Sanaa on Aug. 3, after forcing UN Yemeni workers to hand over belongings, including documents, furniture and vehicles, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said in a statement.

“Ansar Allah forces must leave the premises and return all assets and belongings immediately,” Türk said, using the official name of the Houthis.

A spokesman for the Houthis didn’t return phone calls and messages requesting comment.

The UN’s Human Rights Office said it had suspended the office’s operations in Sanaa and other Yemeni areas controlled by the Houthis following the June crackdown campaign. But it still operates in the parts of Yemen controlled by the internationally recognized government.

In June, the Houthis detained more than 60 people working with the UN and other NGOs, according to the UN Human Rights Office. Among the detainees were six workers with the Human Rights Office, who joined two of their colleagues detained by the Houthis in November 2021 and August 2023, it said.

Days after the arrest campaign, the rebels said they had arrested members of what they called an “American-Israeli spy network.”

The Houthis issued what they purported to be videotaped confessions by 10 Yemenis, several of whom said they were recruited by the US Embassy in Yemen. The UN Human Rights Office said one of its staffers who was detained earlier appeared in a video in which he was forced to confess to allegations, including of espionage, the office said.

The Houthis’ claims could not be independently verified.

The Houthis have been engaged in a civil war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, since 2014, when they took control of Sanaa and most of the north.

The war in Yemen has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more.

The rebels have imprisoned thousands of people during the war. And in recent months they intensified their crackdown on dissent at home, including recently sentencing 44 people to death.