Iran-backed Houthis raid UN food and children’s agencies in Yemen, detain employee
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Houthi terrorists raid UN food and children’s agencies in Yemen, detain employee
Houthi rebels storm UN’s food and children’s agencies in Sanaa, detaining at least one employee. The raids come after an Israeli airstrike killed many of the group’s leaders. The Iran-backed group has vowed to ramp up its attacks on Israel and the Red Sea. The UN had suspended its main operations in the capital back in January when the rebels detained eight staffers. The group fired their first cluster bomb in two years this month targeting the Ben Gurion Airport, forcing millions of people to flee the area. The attacks are in solidarity with Hamas, who have also been targeted by the Houthis.
Members of the terror group’s security force stormed the offices of the World Food Program and UNICEF in Sanaa, with the UN losing contact with several of their staffers and stoking fears that many more have been detained.
“WFP reiterates that the arbitrary detention of humanitarian staff is unacceptable,” Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the World Food Program, told the Associated Press.
3 Houthi rebels held anti-Israel rallies over the weekend, with the terror group storming the UN’s food and children’s agencies in Sanaa on Sunday. AP
3 The Iran-backed group vowed to ramp up its attacks on Israel and the Red Sea following an Israeli airstrike on Thursday that killed many of its leaders. YAHYA ARHAB/EPA/Shutterstock
Moammar al-Eryani, minister of information for the UN-backed government in Yemen, told local outlets that the Houthis also abducted guards working at the UNICEF offices.
Ammar Ammar, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said there was “an ongoing situation” in Sanna, but the children’s agency did not provide further details.
The raids come as the Houthis crack down on security across the capital following Israeli airstrikes late last week that killed the rebel group’s prime minister, Ahmed al-Rahawi’, along with several cabinet members.
The Houthis had vowed vengeance over the attack, which allegedly targeted the ministers while attending a routine workshop to assess their operations.
3 Ahmad al-Rahawi, the head of the Houthi rebels, was among those killed during the Israeli airstrike. REUTERS
The rebel group has repeatedly targeted the UN for years, detaining dozens of staffers and other humanitarians who worked at the now-closed US embassy in Sanaa.
The UN had suspended its main operations in the besieged capital back in January when the rebels detained eight staffers.
The Houthis have ramped up their attacks on Israel since the conflict with Hamas began in 2023, the rebel group firing their first cluster bomb in two years this month targeting the Ben Gurion Airport, forcing millions into shelters.
The rebel group has maintained that its attacks on Israel and on merchant ships in the Red Sea will continue as a show of solidarity with Hamas.
“Our military approach of targeting the Israeli enemy, whether with missiles, drones or a naval blockade, is continuous, steady, and escalating,” Abdel-Karim al-Houthi, the group’s secretive leader, said in a televised speech Sunday.
With Post wires
Houthis storm UN buildings in Yemeni capital after Israel killed PM and other ministers
Iran-backed Houthi rebels stormed the offices of two United Nations agencies in the Yemeni capital Sanaa. A WFP staff member was detained, as were a number of UNICEF staff members, according to the agencies. It is unclear whether the raids were related to Israel’s attacks on the Houthi government. At least 11 UN personnel were detained, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen later confirmed, adding that he “strongly’ condemns the detentions’ The information minister with the UN-backed government, Moammar al-Eryani, strongly condemned the Houthis’ actions.
The offices the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) were “entered by local security forces” on Sunday morning, spokespersons for the agencies told CNN in separate statements.
A WFP staff member was detained, as were a number of UNICEF staff members, according to the statements.
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Hans Grundberg, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, later confirmed that at least 11 UN personnel were detained, adding that he “strongly” condemns the detentions, as well as the forced entry into UN premises.
The WFP and UNICEF are “urgently seeking additional information” from local authorities, their spokespersons told CNN, adding: “Our immediate priority is the safety and well-being of our staff.”
It is unclear whether the raids were related to Israel’s attacks. The Houthis have previously targeted the UN and other international organizations.
The information minister with the UN-backed government, Moammar al-Eryani, strongly condemned the Houthis’ actions, Yemeni state news agency SABA NEWS reported.
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Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the strikes that killed Ahmed al-Rahawi, the prime minister of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, are “only the beginning” of his country’s campaign against the group.
Al-Rahawi was killed alongside other Houthi officials in a strike on Sanaa on Thursday, the head of the Houthis’ Supreme Political Council confirmed, vowing revenge for the attack.
The rebel group regularly launches missiles at Israel, as well as attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, in what it says is revenge for Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
Netanyahu has pledged that the Houthis will “pay a very heavy price for their aggression against the State of Israel.”
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“We are doing what no one has done before us, and this is only the beginning of the strikes on senior officials in Sanaa – we will get to all of them,” the Israeli leader told a government meeting on Sunday.
Since 2014, Yemen has been split between a Houthi government which controls Sanaa and much of the north, and a rival but more widely recognized administration in the south.
CNN’s Eugenia Yosef and Max Saltman contributed to this report.
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Iran-backed Houthis raid UN offices in Yemen, detain several employees
The United Nations envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said that the rebels had detained at least 11 workers. Sunday’s raids came on the heels of the killing of the Houthi prime minister and several of his Cabinet members in an Israeli strike Thursday. The raids were the latest in a long-running Houthi crackdown against the United Nations and other international organizations working in rebel-held areas in Yemen. The Houthis are likely to escalate their attacks on Israel and ships in the Red Sea, after they vowed in July to target merchant ships belonging to any company that does business with Israeli ports, regardless of nationality. They have detained dozens of U.N. staffers, as well as people associated with aid groups, civil society and the now-closed U.S. Embassy in Sanaa. The UN’s World Food Programme earlier said one of its staff members had been detained at the agency’s Sanaa offices.
The United Nations envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said that the rebels had detained at least 11 workers.
“I strongly condemn the new wave of arbitrary detentions of UN personnel today in Sanaa and Hodeida… as well as the forced entry into UN premises and seizure of UN property.
At least 11 UN personnel were detained,” Grundberg said in a statement, demanding that they be “immediately and unconditionally” released. The UN’s World Food Programme earlier said one of its staff members had been detained at the agency’s Sanaa offices.
The raids were the latest in a long-running Houthi crackdown against the United Nations and other international organizations working in rebel-held areas in Yemen.
They have detained dozens of U.N. staffers, as well as people associated with aid groups, civil society and the now-closed U.S. Embassy in Sanaa. The U.N. suspended its operations in the Houthi stronghold of Saada in northern Yemen after the rebels detained eight U.N. staffers in January.
At least five miniters confirmed killed in the Israeli strike
Sunday’s raids came on the heels of the killing of the Houthi prime minister and several of his Cabinet members in an Israeli strike Thursday. It was a blow to the Iran-backed rebels who have launched attacks on Israel and ships in the Red Sea in relation to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Among the dead were Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi, Foreign Minister Gamal Amer, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Local Development Mohammed al-Medani, Electricity Minister Ali Seif Hassan, Tourism Minister Ali al-Yafei and Information Minister Hashim Sharafuldin, according to two Houthi officials and the victims’ families.
Also killed was a powerful deputy interior minister, Abdel-Majed al-Murtada, the Houthi officials said.
They were targeted during a “routine workshop held by the government to evaluate its activities and performance over the past year,” a Houthi statement said Saturday, two days after the strike. The Houthis said a funeral for all those killed is scheduled for Monday in Sabeen Square in central Sanaa.
Defense Minister Mohamed Nasser al-Attefi survived the attack while Abdel-Karim al-Houthi, the interior minister and one of the most powerful figures in the rebel group, didn’t attend the Thursday meeting, the Houthi officials said.
U.N. envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg expressed “great concern” over Israel’s recent strikes in the Houthi-controlled areas following Houthi attacks against Israel.
“Yemen cannot afford to become a battleground for a broader geopolitical conflict,” he said in a statement. He called for de-escalation.
Thursday’s strike came after the Houthis attacked Israel on Aug. 21 with a ballistic missile that its military described as the first cluster bomb the rebels had launched at Israel since 2023. The missile, which the Houthis said was aimed at Ben Gurion Airport, prompted air raid sirens across central Israel and Jerusalem, forcing millions into shelters.
The Houthis are likely to escalate their attacks on Israel and ships in the Red Sea, after they vowed in July to target merchant ships belonging to any company that does business with Israeli ports, regardless of nationality.
“Our military approach of targeting the Israeli enemy, whether with missiles, drones or a naval blockade, is continuous, steady, and escalating,” al-Houthi, the group’s secretive leader, said in a televised speech Sunday.
Iran-backed Houthis raid UN food and children’s agencies in Yemen
At least one UN employee has been detained, officials say. The raids were the latest in a long-running Houthi crackdown against the United Nations and other international organisations working in rebel-held areas in Yemen. The Houthis have tightened security across Sanaa following the Israeli killing of their prime minister and several Cabinet members.
Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the World Food Program, told The Associated Press that security forces
raided the agencies’ offices in the Houthi-controlled capital Sunday morning.
Also raided were UNICEF offices, according to a UN official and a Houthi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to brief the media.
Ammar Ammar, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said there was “an ongoing situation” related to their offices in Sanaa, without providing further details.
The UN official said contacts with several other WFP and UNICEF staffers were lost and that they were likely also detained.
The raids were the latest in a long-running Houthi crackdown against the United Nations and other international organisations working in rebel-held areas in Yemen.agencies
Houthis Raid UN Offices in Yemen After Strike Kills Top Leaders
Houthi forces have conducted raids on the offices of United Nations food and children’s agencies in the capital, Sana’a, resulting in the detention of at least one UN employee. This operation occurred on Sunday morning when security forces targeted the agencies amid increased security measures following the high-profile killing of the Houthi prime minister and several cabinet members in an Israeli airstrike. This incident marks another chapter in the long-running crackdown by the Houthis on UN and other international organizations operating in areas under their control.
Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP), expressed strong condemnation of the actions, stating, “WFP reiterates that the arbitrary detention of humanitarian staff is unacceptable.” The situation appears to be dire, as Ammar Ammar, a spokesperson for UNICEF, confirmed that there was “an ongoing situation” but refrained from providing specific details about the status of their personnel.
According to a United Nations official, communication with multiple WFP and UNICEF staff members has been lost, with fears that they, too, may have been detained. This incident marks another chapter in the long-running crackdown by the Houthis on UN and other international organizations operating in areas under their control, during which dozens of UN staff and personnel associated with various aid groups have been detained.
The Houthi regime’s harassment of humanitarian aid workers intensified in January, when the UN suspended its operations in the Houthi stronghold of Saada after eight UN staff members were taken into custody.
The recent raids came swiftly on the heels of the airstrike that killed Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi along with several key cabinet members, including the foreign minister and deputy prime minister. The strike, claimed to have targeted a government workshop on evaluating performance, resulted in significant losses for the Iran-aligned group, which has been engaged in ongoing conflicts, including renewed hostilities with Israel amid the wider Israel-Hamas conflict.
As the situation unfolds, the Houthis have positioned themselves for a potential increase in military actions against Israel and maritime commerce in the Red Sea. Following a previous missile strike aimed at Israel on August 21, the group has threatened to target foreign vessels that conduct business with Israeli ports, signaling an intention to bolster their military strategy.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthis, issued a defiant declaration during a televised address, asserting that their military campaign against Israel would continue to escalate through missile attacks, drone strikes, and a naval blockade. The ongoing turmoil in Yemen raises concerns about the safety and efficacy of humanitarian operations amid rising violence and geopolitical tensions in the region.