DUBAI, October 19. /TASS/. The Houthis from Yemen's rebel Ansar Allah movement, which controls around a third of the country’s territory, have detained twenty UN employees, including 15 foreign citizens, in the capital city of Sana, a Houthi spokesman told TASS.
"Yesterday, on October 18, 2025, Ansar Allah security officers got into United Nations compound in Sana without authorization. According to latest reports we have, eleven national employees were released after an interrogation. Five national and 15 international employees are still in custody within the compound," he said.
According to the spokesman, the United Nations is in touch with the authorities in Sana and with the internationally-recognized Yemeni government "to settle this serious incident as soon as possible, to have its employees released and resume control over its facilities."
According to the Al Arabiya television channel, Houthi attacks on international organizations’ facilities in Sana have become more frequent in recent days. It cited a UN source as saying that the current wave of escalation began after rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said that "dangerous spy cells" allegedly linked to humanitarian organizations are operating in Yemen.
In his latest address to the supporters, al-Houthi said that he has "rock-hard evidence" that employees of the UN World Food Program had shared intelligence data with Israel that helped it deliver strikes on Sana in August, killing several senior Houthi officials, including the head of the Houthi government and chief of the general staff of the rebel forces.
The Houthis’ rhetoric in respect of UN structures and humanitarian organizations operating in Yemen has toughened in recent months amid Israeli strikes on Houthi target. In early August, the Houthis detained nine UN employees who were charged with espionage. According to Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, as many as 53 UN employees have been detained in Houthi-controlled territories since 2021.