LAGOS SEPTEMBER 1ST (NEWSRANGERS)- The Iran-backed Houthis raided offices of the United Nations’ food, health and children’s agencies in Yemen’s capital Sunday, detaining at least 11 U.N. employees, officials said. The rebels tightened security across Sanaa after Israel killed 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 offices of the World Health Organization and UNICEF, according to a U.N. official and a Houthi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief the media. The U.N. official said armed forces raided the offices and questioned employees in the parking lot.
Ammar Ammar, a spokesperson for UNICEF, said a number of the agency’s staffers were detained, and UNICEF was seeking additional information from the Houthis.
Both Etefa and Ammar said their agencies were conducting “a comprehensive head count” of their employees in Sanaa and other Houthi-held areas.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in a statement late Sunday said at least 11 personnel had been detained. He condemned their detentions and the “forced entry into the premises of the World Food Program, the seizure of U.N. property and attempts to enter other U.N. premises in Sanaa.”
Guterres called for the immediate and unconditional release of the personnel detained Sunday as well as those detained in the past.
The raids were the latest in a long-running Houthi crackdown against the U.N. 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.
AP
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