The de facto Huthi authorities in Yemen should immediately and unconditionally release the dozens of staff from the United Nations and Yemeni and international civil society organizations who have been arbitrarily detained over the last two years, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International said today. The Huthis’ arbitrary arrests of humanitarian workers has a direct impact on the delivery of lifesaving assistance to people in critical need of aid.
“That the Huthis are detaining aid workers while hunger worsens demonstrates the utter disregard they have for the people living within their territories in northern Yemen,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “They should immediately release all those they have arbitrarily detained and work on fulfilling people’s basic needs.”
Starting on 31 May 2024, the Huthis 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. Since that time, the Huthis have arbitrarily detained dozens more staff of the UN and civil society organizations while releasing only seven. As of February 2026, 73 UN staff and dozens of other humanitarian workers remained in Huthi detention, all of them Yemeni nationals.
