Eleven UN workers arrested in Yemen amid Houthi crackdown

Yemen's Houthi rebels arrested at least 11 United Nations staffers on Sunday in the capital Sanaa and the western city of Hodeidah, two of the Iran-backed group's strongholds, the UN envoy to the country said.

The Iran-backed Houthis have launched a wave of arrests after the prime minister and other senior members of government were killed in Israeli strikes on Thursday.

"I condemn the new wave of arbitrary arrests of UN staff members made in Sanaa and Hodeidah by (the Houthis) as well as the break-in at UN premises and the seizure of UN property," Hans Grudberg, UN envoy for Yemen, said in a statement.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also slammed the arrests.

"I strongly condemn the arbitrary arrests of at least 11 United Nations staff members by the de facto Houthi authorities in areas under their control," Guterres said.

The UN chief demanded the "immediate and unconditional release" of the employees arrested on Sunday.

Guterres also requested the release of "all other members of UN staff, international and national NGOs, civil society and diplomatic missions" who have been detained since June 2024, as well as those still in Houthi jails since 2021.

Earlier, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced the arrest of one of its workers by Houthi rebels in Sanaa, expressing concern about the fate of further staff members of the agency in other parts of the country.

After an Israeli raid in Sana'a on Thursday that killed Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser al-Rahawi, a Yemeni security source revealed to international media that seven WFP and three UNICEF staff were arrested after a raid on their offices.

The UN shared in late January that eight of its Yemeni workers had been captured by the Houthis, who have already held dozens of UN and humanitarian workers since June 2024.

Those arrests last year led the UN to limit staff deployments and suspend operations in some areas of the Gulf peninsula's poorest country.