Clickmen
Yemen’s Houthi rebels stormed the headquarters of the United Nations’ Human Rights Office within the capital, Sanaa, seizing paperwork, furnishings and automobiles, a senior U.N. official stated Tuesday.
The seizure was the newest transfer in a crackdown by the Houthis on folks working with the U.N., help companies and international embassies. The crackdown comes because the Iranian-backed rebels have been concentrating on transport all through the Red Sea hall over the Israel-Hamas battle within the Gaza Strip.
YEMEN’S HOUTHI REBELS USE MISSILES, DRONES TO ATTACK 2 MORE SHIPS IN RED SEA
The rebels took over the U.N. Human Rights Office’s premises in Sanaa on Aug. 3, after forcing U.N. Yemeni staff at hand over belongings, together with paperwork, furnishings and automobiles, U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk stated in a press release.
“Ansar Allah forces must leave the premises and return all assets and belongings immediately,” Türk stated, utilizing the official identify of the Houthis.
A spokesman for the Houthis didn’t return cellphone calls and messages requesting remark.
The U.N.’s Human Rights Office stated it had suspended the workplace’s operations in Sanaa and different Yemeni areas managed by the Houthis following the June crackdown marketing campaign. But it nonetheless operates within the components of Yemen managed by the internationally acknowledged authorities.
Houthi insurgent fighters march throughout a rally of help for the Palestinians within the Gaza Strip and in opposition to the U.S. strikes on Yemen exterior Sanaa on Jan. 22, 2024. (AP Photo)
In June, the Houthis detained greater than 60 folks working with the U.N. and different NGOs, in response to the U.N. Human Rights Office. Among the detainees have been six staff with the Human Rights Office, who joined two of their colleagues detained by the Houthis in November 2021 and August 2023, it stated.
Days after the arrest marketing campaign, the rebels stated they’d arrested members of what they known as an “American-Israeli spy network.”
The Houthis issued what they presupposed to be videotaped confessions by 10 Yemenis, a number of of whom stated they have been recruited by the U.S. Embassy in Yemen. The U.N. Human Rights Office stated one in all its staffers who was detained earlier appeared in a video wherein he was pressured to admit to allegations, together with of espionage, the workplace stated.
The Houthis’ claims couldn’t be independently verified.
The Houthis have been engaged in a civil battle with Yemen’s internationally acknowledged authorities, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, since 2014, once they took management of Sanaa and a lot of the north.
–
The battle in Yemen has killed greater than 150,000 folks, together with fighters and civilians, and created one of many world’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of hundreds extra.
The rebels have imprisoned hundreds of individuals through the battle. And in current months they intensified their crackdown on dissent at house, together with just lately sentencing 44 folks to dying.
