- “Peter Hawkins among 15 international UN staff detained”.
- The UN says detained personnel are “safe and accounted for.”
- The UN is in contact with the authorities in Sanaa for the release of personnel.
The United Nations (UN) office in Yemen said on Sunday that Houthi rebels were still holding 20 of their staff after raiding their building in Sanaa the day before.
On Saturday, the UN office said Houthi security forces had made an “unauthorized entry” into their compound, adding that staff there were “safe and accounted for.”
“Five national staff and fifteen international staff are still detained in the compound,” Jean Alam, spokesperson for the United Nations resident coordinator, said on Sunday.
The UN is in contact with the authorities in Sanaa, relevant member states and the government of Yemen “to resolve this serious situation as quickly as possible, end the detention of all personnel and restore full control of its facilities in Sanaa”, he added.
Late Sunday, a U.N. official, requesting anonymity, said AFP that the representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Yemen was among those arrested.
“Peter Hawkins is one of 15 international employees detained in the complex” searched by the Houthis the day before, the official said.
Espionage accusations
Rebels had already stormed the UN offices in Sanaa on August 31, arresting more than 11 employees, according to the UN.
These employees were suspected of spying for the United States and Israel, a senior Houthi official said. AFP at the time on condition of anonymity.
In a statement on Saturday, the spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, Stéphane Dujarric, said: “We will continue to call for an end to the arbitrary detention of 53 of our colleagues.”
He was responding to a televised speech by rebel leader Abdelmalek al-Huthi on Thursday.
He claimed his forces had dismantled “one of the most dangerous spy cells”, which he said was “linked to humanitarian organizations such as the World Food Program and Unicef”.
Dujarric called the accusations “dangerous and unacceptable.”
Saturday’s raid came as dozens of U.N. personnel had already been arrested in recent months in areas controlled by the Iran-backed group.
In mid-September, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen was officially transferred from Sanaa – the capital held by the Houthi rebels – to Aden, the interim capital of the internationally recognized government.
Since August 31, 2025, 21 UN staff members have been arrested, adding to the 23 current and former members of international NGOs already detained, according to the UN.
Ten years of civil war have plunged Yemen, one of the poorest countries on the Arabian Peninsula, into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to the UN.
