The UN suspends movement in Houthi areas, after the detention of staff

The United Nations (UN) says it has suspended all traffic in Houthi-held areas of Yemen after a number of UN staff were detained by the armed group in the capital Sanaa.

The UN said it was actively engaging with senior Houthi officials to try to secure the release of all its detained staff. So far there has been no official statement from the Hussites.

This is not the first time the group has detained UN workers – a number of staff were detained last year. Over the past three years, the Houthis have also detained about 20 Yemeni employees of the US Embassy.

Human rights groups also accuse the movement of abducting, torturing and arbitrarily detaining hundreds of civilians.

The Iranian-backed Ghoutas have been fighting the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen for nearly a decade. The conflict, which erupted after the Houthis forced out the then-Yemen government, has largely subsided over the past two years.

But the Ghoutas have attracted renewed international attention with the targeting of ships in the Red Sea and the firing of rockets at Israel over the past fifteen months, which they say supports Hamas and the Palestinians.

Their actions prompted a crackdown on Houthi positions in Yemen from the US, Israel and the UK.

Since the Gaza ceasefire began, the Houthis have said they are scaling back their attacks on delivery and will stop firing on Israel if it continues the truce.

However, one of President Trump’s first acts upon taking office was to order the geese Enter the US Foreign Terrorist Organization List.

Despite all this, the group remains in control of large areas of Yemen.

The country was the poorest in the Middle East before the war in 2015. Hundreds of thousands of people have since died in fighting or from disease and famine exacerbated by the conflict.

UN agencies are providing vital life support to millions of Yemenis with food and medical aid.

But they have regularly had trouble reaching people in more remote areas outside major cities, and Houthi officials have regularly reported that they have obstructed humanitarian aid in regions they control.