The European Union Heads of Mission to Yemen have expressed deep concern over the Houthis’ detention and disappearance for over three months of dozens of staff working for the UN, international and local organizations, calling for their unconditional release.
Thursday’s EU concern came as Yemeni Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani condemned the Houthis’ use of torture to extract confessions from staff working for the UN and international organizations.
He said such practices are due to the international community's leniency towards the violations committed by the Iranian-backed group.
In a statement issued on social media platform X, the EU Heads of Mission to Yemen said they are deeply concerned at the arbitrary detention by the Houthis of staff working for the United Nations, international and local NGOs and diplomatic missions in Yemen.
They noted that the detainees have been held “incommunicado and now over 90 days,” which is “severely hampering the capacity of the international community” to deliver essential assistance to millions of Yemenis in urgent need of assistance.
The EU diplomats also voiced their full support for “the repeated international calls, led by UN Secretary-General (Antonio) Guterres, for their immediate and unconditional release.”
The Houthi militias have, since early June, arrested and forcibly disappeared dozens of people, including at least 13 UN staff and many employees of nongovernmental organizations operating in their controlled territories.
The militia has expanded its campaign to include more than 70 employees of international and local organizations in areas under its control in northern and western Yemen, and has accused them of spying for foreign parties.
So far, the international community and UN agencies have failed to convince the Houthi group to release the detainees, while the Yemeni government continues to call for the transferring of the headquarters of UN agencies and international organizations from Houthi-controlled Sanaa to Aden, the country's temporary capital.
Fabricated confessions
The Yemeni Information Minister on Thursday described the Houthis’ publishing and broadcasting of fabricated videos showing detainees “confessing” to espionage, as a “heinous crime.”
He said Houthis obtained the confessions after promising the detainees to release them, without any regard for their age, status, role in community service, or the feelings of their parents.
Al-Eryani said the innocent victims who have been abducted, forcibly hidden, psychologically and physically tortured by Houthis for years, and whose reputation has been tarnished by the publication of their photos and coerced confessions, were performing their routine tasks and jobs normally in their institutions, organizations and embassies.
He said the Houthi militia is bringing false espionage charges against detained people, with no material or moral basis.
