The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said today that one of its aid workers has died in a Yemeni prison after being held there by the Houthis.
The WFP said in a statement that he was one of seven WFP staff members arrested by the Houthis on January 23. The cause of death was not given. The statement came a day after the UN suspended all operations in the rebel stronghold of Saada province, in northern Yemen, after the Houthis arrested eight other UN staff members. “We are heartbroken and outraged by the tragic loss of a WFP team member, Ahmed, who lost his life while arbitrarily detained in Yemen,” WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain wrote on X.
She said the worker, who had a wife and two children, “played a key role in our mission to provide food aid.” A Houthi spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The worker, who joined the UN agency in 2017, died on Monday in a prison in the northern province of Sada, and the circumstances of his death are unknown, said a WFP official, who asked not to be named.
The UN said in a statement that the "emergency" decision to suspend all operations and programs in Saada was made due to the lack of security. It called on the Houthis to release all detained UN staff members.
The rebels have arrested dozens of UN staff, as well as people associated with humanitarian groups, civil society and the US embassy in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. None of the UN staff have yet been released.
The UN decision will affect the response to one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters. Seven UN agencies are operating in Saada, including the WFP, the World Health Organization and UNICEF, along with several other international aid organizations, according to the UN humanitarian agency.
The UN predicts that more than 19 million people across Yemen will need humanitarian assistance this year, as many face climate change, hunger, cholera and the economic fallout of the war in Yemen.
Yemen's civil war began in 2014, when Yemeni Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, seized control of the capital Sanaa and much of the country's north, forcing the government to flee to the south and then to neighboring Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015, with US support, seeking to restore the internationally recognized government to power.
It is estimated that more than 150.000 people have been killed in the war to date and that it has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
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