SANAA, Yemen – The UN’s office in Yemen said Sunday that Huthi rebels were still holding 20 of its staff following their raid on the organization’s building in Sanaa a day earlier.
On Saturday, the UN office said Huthi security forces had made an “unauthorized entry” into its compound.
“Five national staff and fifteen international staff remain detained within the compound,” Jean Alam, spokesman for the UN coordinator in the country, said on Sunday.
The UN was in touch with the authorities in Sanaa, with the relevant member states and the government of Yemen “to resolve this serious situation as swiftly as possible, end the detention of all personnel, and restore full control over its facilities in Sanaa”, he added.
Late on Sunday a UN official, requesting anonymity, told AFP that UNICEF’s representative in Yemen, Peter Hawkins, was among those detained.
Two Huthi security sources confirmed that Hawkins was among those being held.
The rebels had already stormed UN offices in Sanaa on August 31, detaining more than 11 employees, according to the UN.
Those employees were suspected of spying for the United States and Israel, a senior Huthi official told AFP at the time on condition of anonymity.
In a statement on Saturday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “We will continue to call for an end to the arbitrary detention of 53 of our colleagues.”
