Houthis limit relief workers’ mobility by requiring authorization between cities

AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s government has said that the Iran-backed Houthis have requested that Yemenis and foreigners working for international organizations operating in areas under their control obtain prior permission before traveling between Yemeni cities and that the Yemeni militia has abducted dozens of officers and public employees for unknown reasons. 

The Yemeni government has reiterated its appeal for UN agencies and other international organizations to relocate headquarters from Houthi-held areas to the southern city of Aden, Yemen’s temporary capital.

Yemen’s Human Rights Minister Ahmed Arman told Arab News that the Houthis informed Yemeni and foreign workers with international organizations, including some UN agencies, in Sanaa, Hajjah, Amran, Hodeidah, and other Houthi-controlled Yemeni provinces last week that they needed to notify them in advance if they wanted to travel between Yemeni cities. The Houthis waived permission for workers who wished to travel outside of Yemen, which was regarded as an attempt to coerce them to leave the country.

The Yemeni minister urged that the UN “completely” shut its offices in Sanaa to put pressure on the Houthis to return abducted workers and cease harassing humanitarian workers in Yemen, saying: “We demand that the UN and other international institutions completely close their doors until the abducted workers are released.”

In a dramatic sweep that started in late May, the Houthi militia seized around 70 Yemeni personnel from UN agencies, other international organizations, and Western embassies in Sanaa and other Yemeni regions under their control, as well as searched their homes and offices.

According to reports, the Houthis ransacked the abducted workers’ residences, stealing personal papers and belongings, as well as electronics. The arrests happened after the Houthis claimed to have discovered Yemenis exploiting their positions at international organizations to conduct espionage for the US and Israel.

On Tuesday, Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, lambasted the Houthis for seizing a UN human rights agency office in Sanaa and taking papers and other items, saying that their many appeals for the Houthis to return the abducted workers had “fallen on deaf ears.”

In a press release, Turk said: “It is crucial that the de facto authorities respect the United Nations and its independence, release all detained UN staff immediately, and create conditions in which my Office and other UN agencies can continue their critical work for the people of Yemen without threats or hindrance.” 

In a post on social media platform X, Yemen’s Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani on Tuesday made the same call for the UN and other international organizations to relocate their offices from Sanaa to Aden in order to safeguard personnel from the Houthi crackdown.

Al-Eryani urged the UN, its agencies, and other international organizations in Yemen to “immediately move their headquarters to the interim capital, Aden, and the liberated areas, to ensure a suitable environment to carry out their humanitarian missions safely and more effectively to serve those in need, and to preserve the lives of their staff.”

At the same time, Arman said that the Houthis had broadened their crackdown to include officers from intelligence and security agencies, as well as public workers from two ministries. The Houthis have seized 30 officers from national and political security agencies, as well as 16 personnel from the Ministries of Education and Higher Education, and are on the trail of 186 Yemenis for unexplained reasons.

Meanwhile, the US Central Command said on Wednesday morning that its forces had destroyed two Houthi boats in the Red Sea that were preparing to attack commercial and navy ships in the critical commerce channel. This comes a day after the Houthis assaulted two ships in the Red Sea, the latest in a series of assaults on ships that the Yemeni militia claims are in favor of the Palestinian people.