- Peter Hawkins among 15 international UN officials detained.
- The UN says detained staff are “safe and accounted for.”
- The UN contacts the authorities in Sana’a for the release of the personnel.
The United Nations (UN) office in Yemen said on Sunday that Houthi rebels were still holding 20 of its staff following the attack on their building in Sanaa the previous day.
On Saturday, the UN office said Houthi security forces had made an “unauthorized entry” into its compound, adding that staff there were “safe and accounted for.”
“Five national staff and fifteen international staff remain detained inside the compound,” Jean Alam, spokesperson for the U.N. resident coordinator, said Sunday.
The UN is in contact with the authorities in Sana’a, with the relevant Member States and with the government of Yemen “to resolve this serious situation as quickly as possible, end the detention of all staff and restore full control over its facilities in Sana’a,” he added.
Late Sunday, a U.N. official, who requested anonymity, said AFP that among those detained was the representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Yemen.
“Peter Hawkins is among 15 international employees detained at the compound” that the Houthis attacked the previous day, the official said.
Espionage accusations
The rebels had already stormed the UN offices in Sana’a on August 31 and detained more than 11 employees, according to the UN.
Those employees were suspected of spying for the United States and Israel, a senior Houthi official said. AFP at that time on condition of anonymity.
In a statement on Saturday, the UN Secretary-General’s spokesman, 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 Thursday by rebel leader Abdelmalek al-Huthi.
He claimed that 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. staff have 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 Sana’a (the capital held by the Houthi rebels) to Aden, the interim capital of the internationally recognized government.
Since August 31, 2025, 21 UN staff 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, the UN says.
