Ansar Allah detain 3 UN staff as spies for 'Israel', US
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Ansar Allah arrests three UN workers, including two women, in Sanaa over alleged collaboration with "Israel", amid a wider crackdown on NGO personnel.
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Yemenis attend a weekly Pro-Palestine rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, Aug. 29, 2025 (AP)
A security source from Ansar Allah told AFP on Sunday that the group arrested three local UN staff members for spying for "Israel".
A security source from Ansar Allah stated that "two women working for the World Food Programme were taken from their homes on Saturday" in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, adding that a Yemeni man also working for WFP was arrested that night.
The source added, "Security and intelligence services in Sanaa still have a list of people wanted for collaborating with the Israeli and American enemy." These arrests, which are part of a wave targeting UN and other NGO workers on similar charges, follow the arrest of seven other local UN staffers earlier this week on charges of collaboration with "Israel".
In a speech on October 16, the leader of Ansar Allah, Sayyed Abdulmalik al-Houthi, revealed that several individuals affiliated with humanitarian organizations who were arrested were part of a criminal espionage apparatus. The Yemeni leader noted that these enemy spy cells targeting Yemen had undergone extensive training and were equipped with sophisticated and dangerous technology.
The Yemeni leader confirmed that among the most dangerous of these active cells were individuals affiliated with organizations operating in the humanitarian field, most notably the World Food Programme and UNICEF.
According to the Ansar Allah leader, these cells played a fundamental role in the Israeli targeting of the government meeting by monitoring and reporting to the Israeli enemy and thus facilitating the crime.
He further indicated that a cell specifically affiliated with the World Food Programme, which was headed by the chief of security and safety for the program's branch in Yemen, played a role in the crime of targeting the government.
Sayyed al-Houthi further asserted that "the Americans and Israelis have used humanitarian organizations as a cover to protect these cells from arrest and to facilitate their movements with the resources and equipment provided to them."
