(Beirut) – The de facto Houthi 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 (CIHRS), Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International said today. The Houthis’ arbitrary arrests of humanitarian workers has a direct impact on the delivery of lifesaving assistance to people in critical need of aid.
“That the Houthis 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 May 31, 2024, the Houthis 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 Houthis 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 Houthi detention, all of them Yemeni nationals.
On February 11, 2025, an aid worker from the World Food Programme (WFP) died in Houthi custody. His death heightens fears for the safety and well-being of others who remain arbitrarily detained in Houthi-run detention centers, given the Houthis’ 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 December of 2025.
In January 2026, Human Rights Watch found that the detentions have exacerbated the already dire humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
In their latest global report on hunger, the WFP and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) warned: “The already critical acute food insecurity situation is expected to deteriorate further over the outlook period [November 2025 to May 2026], with pockets of the population projected to face Catastrophe” in four districts under Houthi control.
These arrests have been accompanied by a Houthi-led media campaign accusing humanitarian organizations and their staff of “conspiring” against the country’s interests through their projects and warning them of the dangers of “espionage.” Since 2015, Amnesty International has documented scores of cases in which Houthi authorities used spying charges to persecute political opponents and silence peaceful dissent.
“The continued crackdown on civic space in northern Yemen, in which the Houthis have arrested scores, including humanitarian workers, human rights defenders, journalists, and activists, has to end,” said Diala Haidar, Yemen researcher at Amnesty International. “All those arbitrarily detained should be immediately released. Pending their release, Houthi authorities must ensure they are protected from torture and other ill-treatment and that they have access to health care and legal counsel and regular contact with their family.”
Families of some detainees have been told that their detained family members were denied access to lawyers and forced by authorities to make video confessions.
The Houthis released videos in 2024 of other detainees “confessing” to espionage and other charges.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other groups, including the former UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen, have documented the Houthis’ use of torture to obtain information or confessions.
Local and international civil society organizations play a critical role in alleviating Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. Despite drastic funding cuts from donor states, particularly the United States, that are putting the health and human rights of millions of people in Yemen at risk, aid workers on the ground are delivering lifesaving assistance and protection services, including in Houthi-controlled territories of Yemen.
Houthi authorities have targeted human rights and humanitarian workers before. Four Yemeni staff members from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) arrested in 2021 and 2023 remain arbitrarily detained and have been held incommunicado since their arrest. In September 2023, Houthis arrested the safety and security director at Save the Children, and held him incommunicado. He died on October 25, 2023, while arbitrarily detained.
Governments with influence on the Houthis and the UN leadership should step up efforts to secure the release of the nongovernmental organization and UN staff.
“The international community must move beyond statements of concern and deliver a unified, robust response that pressures the Houthi authorities to immediately and unconditionally release all those arbitrarily detained, end reprisals against aid workers, and guarantee safe and unhindered humanitarian access across Yemen,” said Amna Guellali, research director at CIHRS.
