Michigan - The American Center for Justice (ACJ) stated that the Houthi group detained about 50 employees of international organizations, including 18 UN staffers, after a massive campaign launched by the group on the homes and offices of employees working in various UN agencies and non-governmental organizations on June 6, 2024.

According to ACJ's follow-up, the Houthi group has launched a massive campaign since last Friday against workers in various UN and relief agencies, and arrested them without revealing their places of detention and refused to allow them to communicate with their organizations or families, which shows that the Houthi group insists on using forced disappearance as a means of punishment, even against UN and relief employees.

The American Center for Justice refers to what was stated in a statement by the Minister of Human Rights and Legal Affairs in the Yemeni government, Ahmed Arman, to media outlets, in which he said that the Houthi group carried out a massive arrest campaign from last Friday until today targeting dozens of workers in various international and local organizations in Sana'a. 

He added, "The number of detainees to date has reached 50, including 18 United Nations employees and 4 women. One of these women was arrested with her husband and children by the Houthi group. He indicated that "all detainees are held by the Houthis in the group's so-called (security and intelligence) apparatus in Sana'a."

ACJ notes that this is not the first time that the Houthi group pursued workers in international and relief organizations. The center pointed out that the circumstances of the death of Hisham Hakimi, an employee of Save the Children who was detained by the Houthi group in September 2023, are still mysterious. The group has also arbitrarily detained 3 United Nations employees, one of whom has been detained since November 2021, and the others since August 2023.

The American Center for Justice (ACJ) confirms that what the Houthi group is doing against workers and employees of international, relief, and non-governmental organizations is primarily aimed at spreading terror among them in order to discourage them from continuing to provide humanitarian and relief services to millions of Yemenis, especially patients, women, children, and the IDPs. Additionally, the ACJ that these repeated targets will create unexpected humanitarian crises if they are not stopped due to their significant impact on the work of these organizations, especially relief ones.

(ACJ) calls on the Houthi group to release all these humanitarian employees, emphasizing that the UN is required to exercise all necessary forms of pressure on the Houthi group in order to stop its violations against employees and workers in the relief and humanitarian sector and to neutralize this file from the armed conflict and political tensions.