An investigation report by The New Humanitarian found that the Houthi rebels have since last year escalated their crackdown on local aid and civil society workers, arresting more than 50 people in June 2024, including 13 UN personnel, then another eight UN workers in January this year, adding that many of the detainees remain incommunicado.
The report cited some relatives of the detainees and some Yemen experts’ call on aid leaders to enforce tougher red lines against Houthi interference in humanitarian work, including detentions of aid workers.
According to The New Humanitarian’s report , researchers at the Sana’a Center proposed three options for the aid community: Stay in Sana’a and continue negotiating; relocate outside Houthi-controlled areas; or halt operations in Houthi territory until staff are released and aid restrictions are lifted.
Of the 14 humanitarian and civil society workers interviewed by the researchers, 10 supported the third option.
Julien Harneis, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, responded to a similar suggestion during a Chatham House event last year, saying “To suggest stopping assistance in Houthi-held areas, he said, warrants asking: “How many people do you want to kill? Is it 10,000 children? Is it 20,000 children that we’re going to allow to die?”
“That’s a cop-out,” said Vuylsteke, the former WFP access coordinator in Yemen, commenting on Harneis’s statements. “I would ask him, but do you know that the aid that you’re delivering in the current circumstance – that you’re unwilling to push back on – is actually helping people?”
Multiple reports published over the last few years, according to The New Humanitarian’s report, raise similar questions about how much aid in Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen reaches its intended recipients.
According to Farea al-Muslimi, a research fellow at Chatham House, humanitarian organizations hesitate to stand up to Houthi interference because it could put their access to beneficiaries at risk.
In response to questions from The New Humanitarian, Harneis said his only considerations when making decisions are humanitarian principles and international humanitarian law.
On 10 February 2025, the UN paused all operations in Yemen’s Sa’ada governorate, a Houthi stronghold following the death of one of its staff (Ahmed Ba’alawi ) who was in custody.
“This extraordinary and temporary measure seeks to balance the imperative to stay and deliver with the need to have the safety and security of the UN personnel and its partners guaranteed,” said a statement from the UN secretary-general’s office.
Like in the case of Hisham al-Hakimi, the Save the Children International’s staff who died in custody late October 2023 y , the specific reason for Ba’alawi’s arrest and the manner of his death are known only to his captors.
The New Humanitarian’s report concluded that more than a year-and-a-half after al-Hakimi’s arrest – and with dozens of workers still in detention – “aid organizations continue to wrestle with tough choices and their own red lines, with few options for trying to hold the Houthis accountable”.