Yemen’s human rights minister asks Germany to press Houthis over detainees
Yemen Herald News 
GENEVA, Switzerland — Yemen’s human rights minister asked Germany on Monday to press the Houthis to release everyone they are holding in detention.
Mashdal Omar made the request to Antje Leendertse, Germany’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva, the state news agency Saba reported.
Omar said the release should be immediate and unconditional.
He did not give a figure for the number of people he said the Houthis were holding.
The two met in Geneva. They discussed human rights conditions in Yemen and what Omar described as the consequences of Houthi military operations, according to Saba.
Omar said the government was committed to protecting civilians, easing their suffering and supporting national human rights institutions.
He said Houthi forces had recruited children, carried out abductions and committed enforced disappearances in Taiz, Hudaydah, Marib and Dhale’a, Saba reported.
The Houthi authorities have described detained aid and UN workers as members of spy networks, and reject accusations that they hold people arbitrarily.
Omar said the fighting had driven more people from their homes and deepened humanitarian needs.
Leendertse said Germany would continue to support efforts to improve human rights conditions in Yemen, Saba reported.
She said that support covered easing humanitarian suffering, encouraging de-escalation and restoring stability.
Deputy Minister Nabil Abdulhafiz also attended.
Abdulhafiz raised monitoring mechanisms and a national human rights strategy, according to Saba. He said the ministry needed help with training and capacity-building programmes.
This account of the meeting rests on the report carried by Saba, the Yemeni government’s official news agency. Yemen Herald found no independent confirmation of the discussion.
Leendertse presented her credentials at the United Nations Office at Geneva in August 2025.
She served as Germany’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York before moving to Geneva.
The meeting followed a widening of the fighting.
A Saudi-led coalition said on Monday that an air campaign against the Houthis was under way along the Red Sea coast and over Sanaa. The campaign was reported by the Irish Times, Haaretz, Axios and the Washington Times.
The coalition spokesman, Turki al-Maliki, said 100 fighter jets were taking part in an operation the government calls Dawn of Yemen. That figure is the coalition’s own and has not been independently confirmed.
Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council had announced a ground operation days earlier to retake territory held by the Houthis.
The council was formed in April 2022 and is chaired by Rashad al-Alimi, who is based in Riyadh.
Claims by both sides about territory and battlefield losses have not been independently verified.
The Houthis warned airlines on Tuesday against flying in Saudi airspace, according to Middle East Monitor.
The detainee question has sharpened since August.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said on Oct. 6 that the Houthi authorities had referred at least eight people working in human rights and humanitarian roles for criminal prosecution since Aug. 18.
Human Rights Watch raised the same concern in August, saying then that the Houthi authorities were prosecuting UN and civil society staff.
The two organisations said in a joint statement that the cases went to the Specialized Criminal Prosecution in Sanaa.
They said the charges were espionage and aiding the enemy, under articles 127 and 128 of Yemen’s penal code. Both carry the death penalty, the statement said.
Two of those referred are United Nations employees and one is a UN consultant, according to the statement. Five worked for international and local organisations.
The statement named Sami Kallabi, 41, a UN staff member, and Labib Shayef, 57, a UN consultant. It said both were arrested on June 6, 2024.
It said Kallabi has cancer and is receiving chemotherapy, and that Shayef has diabetes and hepatitis B.
The organisations also named Ali al-Mudhwahi, a UNICEF consultant who had advised the health ministry run by the Houthis.
Diala Haidar, Amnesty International’s Yemen researcher, said in the statement that demanding the release of Yemen’s UN and civil society workers should be a priority. Niku Jafarnia, a Human Rights Watch researcher on Yemen and Bahrain, was also quoted.
The statement cited United Nations figures from February 2026 showing 73 UN staff still in detention.
Yemen Herald found no second origin for the figure of eight referrals beyond that joint statement.
Houthi forces raided UN premises in Sanaa in 2025 and detained staff in waves. Al Jazeera reported in October 2025 that 20 UN employees were seized in a single raid, and in December 2025 that the number in detention had reached 69.
Human Rights Watch said in January 2026 that the detentions were halting aid work in Yemen.
Aid agencies appealed for 2.16 billion dollars for Yemen this year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. OCHA said the appeal was meant to reach 12 million people.
Its 2026 plan put the number of people needing assistance at more than 22 million.
The plan said 18.3 million people were acutely food insecure and that 5.2 million people were displaced inside the country.
More than 2.2 million children under five were acutely malnourished, according to the plan, including 516,157 with severe acute malnutrition.
Saba did not say whether the two sides agreed on further meetings.
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