The Daily Populous Monday October 20th, 2025 evening edition
Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by Firecracker048

Houthi rebels have detained 20 employees at a UN facility in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen.

They are holding five Yemenis and 15 international workers but released another 11 after questioning them on Sunday. It was the second raid on a UN building in Sana’a in 24 hours.

A UN spokesperson said officials were in contact with the Houthis and other parties “to resolve this serious situation as swiftly as possible, end the detention of all personnel, and restore full control over its facilities in Sana’a”.

A second UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the rebels confiscated all communications equipment from the facility, including phones, servers and computers.

The employees belong to agencies including the World Food Programme (WFP), Unicef and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The Houthis have been conducting operations against international organisations working in rebel-held areas including Sana’a, the coastal city of Hodeidah and the rebel stronghold in Saada province.

Scores of people, including more than 50 UN staffers, have been detained so far by the Iran-backed group. A WFP worker died in detention earlier this year in Saada.

The rebels have alleged without evidence that detained UN staffers and those working with other international groups and foreign embassies were spies. The UN denied the accusations.

The UN suspended its operations in Saada after the detention of eight staff in January. It also relocated its top humanitarian coordinator from Sana’a to the coastal city of Aden, which serves as the seat of the internationally recognised government.

appositereboot on October 20th, 2025 at 17:30 UTC »

Do they have any demands? The article just mentions that the Houthis accuse the UN workers of being spies.

Sad_Use_4584 on October 20th, 2025 at 14:14 UTC »

Saudi Arabia is happy that Israel is taking care of business for them. For all the coerced preference falsification that we must suffer as consumers of media, Israel and Saudi Arabia share three rivals: Qatar (2021 blockade), Iran and Houthis. Further, the two countries do not share a land border, Saudi Arabia stands to benefit from Israel's cyber capabilities, and Israel stands to check Turkey's influence in Syria. They are natural allies and this underlying truth will continue to create situations where Saudi Arabia's words do not match their actions.

Firecracker048 on October 20th, 2025 at 11:17 UTC »

excerpt:

> Houthi rebels have detained 20 employees at a UN facility in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen.

> They are holding five Yemenis and 15 international workers but released another 11 after questioning them on Sunday. It was the second raid on a UN building in Sana’a in 24 hours.

> A UN spokesperson said officials were in contact with the Houthis and other parties “to resolve this serious situation as swiftly as possible, end the detention of all personnel, and restore full control over its facilities in Sana’a”.

> A second UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the rebels confiscated all communications equipment from the facility, including phones, servers and computers

as a personal aside, is reddit done pretending the Houthis are some good guys in a struggle against Israel?