UN says Houthis have returned Yemen rights office they seized

Spokesman reports ‘the office appears to be in its original state, but an inventory is currently underway,’ while calling for the release of staffers held by the Iran-backed rebels

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have returned the United Nations Human Rights Office in Sanaa, which they had seized earlier this month, a UN spokesman said Monday.

On August 3, the Iran-backed group sent a delegation to the UN Human Rights Office’s premises and forced staff to hand over the keys.

“The office was handed back today to our resident coordinator in Yemen,” said Stephane Dujarric, UN spokesman for the secretary-general.

According to the coordinator “the office appears to be in its original state, but an inventory is currently underway,” Dujarric said.

UN rights chief Volker Turk, who announced the seizing of the office last week, called it “a serious attack on the ability of the UN to perform its mandate.”

The UN on Monday called again for the release of 13 of its staff and dozens of NGO and embassy employees who have been held by the Houthis for more than two months.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “deeply concerned about the well-being” of the detainees, Dujarric said, adding that he called for their “immediate and unconditional release.”

“The UN and its partners should never be targeted, arrested or detained while carrying out their mandates,” Dujarric added.

The Houthis claimed they arrested “an American-Israeli spy network” operating under the cover of humanitarian organizations — allegations emphatically rejected by the UN Human Rights Office.

The Houthis are engaged in a long-running civil war that has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. More than half of the population is dependent on aid in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country.

Fighting has significantly decreased since the negotiation of a six-month truce by the UN in April 2022, although the truce has officially ended.