The Media Line: US and UN Denounce Houthi Detention of Local Staff in Yemen 

US and UN Denounce Houthi Detention of Local Staff in Yemen 

By The Media Line Staff 

The United States and the United Nations have sharply condemned Yemen’s Houthi movement for holding dozens of Yemeni employees of the US mission and UN agencies incommunicado and pushing some of them through what Western and UN officials describe as sham legal proceedings in Sana’a. The statements, issued in Washington and New York this week, accuse the Iran-backed group of using intimidation and abuse to entrench its control in territory it has ruled for nearly a decade. 

US State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Thomas “Tommy” Pigott said in a press statement that “the United States condemns the Houthis’ ongoing unlawful detention of current and former local staff of the US Mission to Yemen. The Iran-backed Houthis, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, have intensified their campaign of intimidation and abuse against Yemeni citizens affiliated with international organizations and foreign governments.” 

Pigott said the detentions and prosecutions show that the Houthis “rely on the use of terror against their own people as a way to stay in power” and called for “the immediate and unconditional release of the mission staff.” Local US embassy and aid workers have been detained since the Houthis stormed the compound used by the US mission in 2021, a year after American diplomats relocated to Saudi Arabia as fighting escalated. 

At the UN, Secretary-General António Guterres also condemned the Houthis’ decision to send some detained UN staff to a special criminal court. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the group has “arbitrarily detained 59 Yemeni UN personnel, who have been held ‘incommunicado—some for years—without any due process, in violation of international law.’” He reminded the de facto authorities that “United Nations personnel, including those who are nationals of Yemen, are immune from legal process in respect of all acts performed by them in their official capacity.” 

The Houthis seized Sana’a in 2014 and have since fought a long, grinding war against the internationally recognized Yemeni government and a Saudi-led coalition, while deepening ties with Iran. Human rights groups say the movement has tightened its grip through arbitrary arrests, torture, and suppression of dissent, targeting not only opponents but also Yemenis working with foreign governments and international institutions.