The de facto Huthi authorities in Yemen should immediately and unconditionally release the dozens of staff from the United Nations and Yemeni and international civil society organizations who have been arbitrarily detained over the last two years, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International said today. The Huthis’ arbitrary arrests of humanitarian workers has a direct impact on the delivery of lifesaving assistance to people in critical need of aid. “That the Huthis are detaining aid workers while hunger worsens demonstrates the utter disregard they have for the people living within their territories in northern Yemen,” said Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch. “They should immediately release all those they have arbitrarily detained and work on fulfilling people’s basic needs.” Starting on 31 May 2024, the Huthis carried out a series of raids in areas under their control, arbitrarily detaining 13 UN staff and at least 50 staff from Yemeni and international civil society organizations. Since that time, the Huthis have arbitrarily detained dozens more staff of the UN and civil society organizations while releasing only seven. As of February 2026, 73 UN staff and dozens of other humanitarian workers remained in Huthi detention, all of them Yemeni nationals. On 11 February 2025 an aid worker from the World Food Programme died in Huthi custody. His death heightens fears for the safety and well-being of others who remain arbitrarily detained in Huthi-run detention centres, given the Huthis’ track record of torture and other ill-treatment against detainees. Many of those detained were arrested without being shown arrest warrants and were forcibly disappeared for months. While some have received medical care, many have not, including some detainees who have serious medical conditions. No sources that Human Rights Watch has previously spoken to have been aware of any detainees having access to lawyers, despite three UN employees’ cases having been transferred to the Specialized Criminal Court in…
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