The United Nations has shifted the location for Yemen’s resident coordinator to Aden, following the detention of at least 18 UN staff in Sanaa over a week ago.
On Tuesday, the Yemen resident coordinator’s office announced the move to Aden, while affirming the coordinator’s continued commitment to operations across Yemen.
“The Resident Coordinator will keep a presence in Sanaa and will travel nationwide, including to Sanaa,” stated the office.
The Aden-based government’s foreign ministry welcomed the UN’s decision on Tuesday and urged other UN programs to do the same.
“The Ministry strongly condemns the arbitrary detention of numerous humanitarian workers by the Houthi militia and demands their immediate release,” it added. The UN earlier reported that Houthi rebels raided its Sanaa offices on August 31, detaining UN personnel after an Israeli strike that killed the Houthi government’s prime minister and other ministers. The Houthi-run Foreign Ministry stated that UN officials’ legal immunities should not protect espionage activities.
Prior to the recent detentions, the Houthis were holding 23 UN staff, some since 2021, with one UN employee having died in Houthi custody in February.
Yemen remains divided between the Houthi-controlled Sanaa and the Saudi-backed government in Aden since the Iran-aligned Houthis seized Sanaa in late 2014, sparking a decade-long conflict.
The UN’s World Food Programme declared the recent Houthi escalations “intolerable” on Tuesday, stating: “The arbitrary detention of WFP and UN staff, forced entry into UN offices, property destruction and seizure, and coercion against national staff are unacceptable and have severely hampered efforts to aid vulnerable communities in northern Yemen.” It urged the release of all aid workers.
