Recently, the United Nations expressed concerns when a Houthi rebel group in Yemen seized its Human Rights Office in Sanaa.
The UN’s office in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, was earlier this month attacked by the Houthis, who are an Iran-backed group, and they took away documents, furniture, and vehicles. This is not the first time that the Houthis have threatened or attacked UN crews and offices or occupied foreign embassies: their activity has been largely focused recently on the war against Israel in Gaza, where they have also bombed ships in the Red Sea.
Speaking of the event, a senior UN official said that the office had been seized on August 3, and the local UN staff had to surrender their belongings and papers. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has reportedly called on the official name of the Houthis as the Ansar Allah forces to ‘vacate the buildings, and provide the necessary documentation to return all property and personal effects.
The UN’s Human Rights Office has since closed its operations in the territories controlled by the Houthi rebels, which include Sanaa and most of northern Yemen after the rebels provoked a crackdown on foreign organizations in June.
Nonetheless, it remains open for business in the areas of Yemen recognized by the international community as controlled by the country’s government, although the latter is in opposition to the Houthi rebels; the latter has been warring with the Saudi-led coalition since 2014.
The Houthis had already captured more than 60 people, including employees of the UN and other NGOs, in June, accusing them of belonging to an “American-Israeli spy network. ” The organization released videos of 10 Yemenis, including a worker from the UN Human Rights Office, who stated how they were contacted by the US Embassy. The UN has rubbished such allegations as false and retaliated that these confessions were involuntary.
Yemen’s war has been brutal; it has wiped out little more than 150,000 people and created one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes, with thousands more killed.
