Paris, December 29 (BNA): The United Nations bodies said in a joint statement, today, Tuesday, that the Yemeni Houthi group has detained two employees of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Human Rights Organization since early November, and called to their immediate release.
The statement did not give details about the two people, but a Yemeni government official told Reuters that they were Yemenis who had previously worked with the US embassy in Sanaa.
“The United Nations has not received information about the grounds or the legal basis for their detention or their current situation,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
The United States said in November that the Houthis, the de-facto authority in northern Yemen, had detained several Yemeni employees in the US embassy compound in the capital, Sanaa, without disclosing their number.
The embassy has been closed since 2015 after the Houthis expelled the internationally recognized government from Sanaa in late 2014. The mission has since been operating outside of Saudi Arabia.
The State Department called on the movement to release immediately and unharmed all Yemeni employees in the United States, evacuate the embassy complex and return confiscated property, Reuters reported.
Houthi officials have not commented on the arrests. The head of the group’s Supreme Revolutionary Committee criticized the United States for “abandoning” the local staff.
The Iran-aligned Houthi movement has been battling a Saudi-led military coalition for more than six years.