Full Analysis Summary
Aid worker detentions in Yemen
Detentions and deaths have further undermined relief work.
The UN says 73 of its staff "remain arbitrarily detained" by the Houthis, with some detentions dating back to 2021.
The UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said this month that these detentions are "having a profound impact on operations."
The BBC reports that some local NGO staff were detained after distributing aid without using Houthi beneficiary lists.
Saber (not his real name) fled to the south after a colleague, Hisham al-Hakimi, died in Houthi detention in October 2023, and a WFP staff member died in detention in February 2025.
The Houthis have accused detained humanitarian workers of being spies; their leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said last October that his group had arrested "well trained spy cells operating under a humanitarian cover" from organisations including the WFP and Unicef, a claim the UN has rejected.
The BBC says it repeatedly tried to contact Houthi officials but did not receive a reply.
Oxfam's Yemen country director Farran Puig urged "Greater and sustained international support" to avert a more catastrophic crisis.
Amina warned that the chances of survival for "the independent humanitarian community, as we know it in northern Yemen" are only getting slimmer.