The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has confirmed the death of a Yemeni staff member held by the Houthis since June 2024 and called on the group to open an independent investigation. Mohammed al-Shami, who worked for the office in Yemen, was detained on 6 June 2024 in a wave of arrests that also swept up thirteen other UN employees in the country.
His family learned of the death only recently, more than a month after it happened, and has received no explanation of how or why he died. Neither the exact date nor the cause has been made public.
What the UN is asking for
High Commissioner Volker Türk called the death devastating and demanded an urgent, independent and thorough inquiry, with full transparency: the release of medical and detention records, the preservation of evidence, and independent scrutiny of any cause of death the group may put forward.
"They deserve to know the truth," Türk said of the family, according to UN News. He added that "under no circumstances" can United Nations personnel be detained and that "there must be accountability for wrongdoing".
Türk also said the case raises questions about the safety of UN personnel and about the organisation's own ability to keep working in Houthi-controlled areas — a practical point rather than a rhetorical one: the UN is the backbone of humanitarian aid in Yemen, where the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that more than 22 million people need assistance this year.
71 detainees, seven from the human rights office
The United Nations said in mid-October that 71 of its staff were being held by the Houthis. Seven of them work for the human rights office itself, according to Türk, who renewed his call for their immediate and unconditional release. On 9 October, Special Envoy Hans Grundberg told the Security Council that many of the detainees have serious health problems.
The Houthis accuse detained staff of spying for the United States and Israel, a charge that can carry the death penalty in Yemen. The United Nations rejects the accusation. As of publication, the group had issued no account of its own regarding al-Shami's death.
This is the second known death of a UN staff member in Houthi custody. A Yemeni World Food Programme employee detained in January 2025 died the following month in a prison in the north of the country, and the organisation suspended its operations in Saada afterwards. In June, the Security Council condemned the continuing detentions, which also cover humanitarian workers and civil society representatives.
Yemen's human rights minister, Mashdal Omar, held the Houthis fully responsible for al-Shami's "abduction, disappearance and death" and urged the United Nations to act more firmly to free the detained employees.
With information from UN News and Arab News.
