In 2024, the Ansar Allah group (generally referred to in the Western press disparagingly as “the Houthis”), which constitute the main component of the de facto government in northern Yemen, arbitrarily detained UN staff and aid workers from Yemeni and international civil society organisations. Since then, 73 UN staff and dozens of other humanitarian workers have remained in their custody. All those detained are Yemeni nationals.
The Ansar Allah forces entered homes without warrants or clear charges, searched houses, arrested people, and failed to inform relatives about the whereabouts of detainees. This constitutes enforced disappearance, which is a serious crime under both Yemeni and international law, including Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Yemen is a state party. Detainees were additionally denied legal representation.
Concerns about the safety and well-being of detainees have increased after the deaths in detention of the Director of Safety and Security at Save the Children and a humanitarian worker from the World Food Programme. Both psychological and physical torture has been used by the Ansar Allah group to extract information or confessions, including the denial of medical treatment.
The Ansar Allah group later published videos in which some of those detained “confess” to espionage and other charges. Its media also launched a campaign accusing humanitarian organisations and their staff of conspiring against the country’s interests. The alleged exposure of a “spy network” became the justification for the wave of arrests and disappearances. This created a climate of fear and many of those at risk fled northern Yemen. Sadly several UN agencies and organisations where detainees worked made little or no effort to contact the families of detainees. As Amna Ghallali, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)’s Director of Research, argued, the international community must move beyond statements of concern and deliver a unified response.
Arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance were also carried out in southern Yemen, controlled by the internationally recognised government and the Southern Transitional Council. There, men and women were targeted for their political and religious beliefs.
The Humanitarian Impact of Restricted Aid Access
The detentions are compounding an already catastrophic humanitarian situation. Donor countries and humanitarian organisations have reduced or suspended funding and assistance on the ground. As of March 2026, 22.3 million people (over two-thirds of the population) need humanitarian assistance, and only 12.7% of the required $2.16 billion in funding has been provided as of May 2026. An estimated 18.3 million people face acute food insecurity, 2.2 million children under five are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2026, and 1.3 million pregnant and lactating women are expected to face malnutrition. The June–September hunger season is expected to push even more people into emergency conditions.
The crisis is not caused by funding cuts alone but also by volatile wages, high prices, reduced income opportunities and restrictions on agricultural production. Since around 60 percent of Yemeni households depend on agriculture, extreme weather, pest outbreaks and supply chain disruptions have made the situation even worse.
The humanitarian situation differs significantly between northern and southern Yemen. In the north, where two-thirds of the population live, the Ansar Allah group exercise greater organisational control. However, they also control lists of aid recipients and, in some cases, use preferential access to humanitarian aid to support their fighters and their families.
In the south, officially under the control of the internationally recognised government, governance remains fragmented due to ongoing conflict. Most large Internal Displaced People and refugee camps are located there, which allows humanitarian organisations to maintain greater operational space than in the north. However, weather conditions, political instability and economic decline are significantly affecting operations.
Regarding the health sector, across Yemen nearly 40 percent of health facilities are partially or completely non-functional and 76 hospitals have been closed in the past year. Yemen continues to face outbreaks of cholera, measles, dengue fever and polio. In Aden and Marib, World Health Organization and local partners provide direct healthcare to people in IDP camps through mobile clinics, especially in remote areas.
UN humanitarian agencies continue to call on the international community to urgently increase funding for food assistance, nutrition, healthcare, agriculture and resilience programmes. At the same time, wider Middle East tensions have pushed Yemen’s humanitarian crisis and peace negotiations further into the background.
Protecting humanitarian workers is therefore essential to protecting civilians. When aid workers are silenced, civilians are left with even fewer services and chances of survival. Yemen’s crisis will not improve while those trying to deliver help are themselves treated as enemies.
Image credit: Angela Schoettler, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
