The Abductees’ Mothers Association strongly condemns the death of Mohammed Ibrahim Mohammed Al-Shami, an employee of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Sana’a, inside a detention facility run by the Houthi group, following more than two years of abduction and arbitrary detention. This tragic incident exposes the serious risks facing dozens of UN employees detained by the group and raises grave questions about their conditions of detention and the violations which they may be subjected to.
The Houthi group abducted Mohammed Al-Shami, who served as the administrative and financial officer at the OHCHR office in Sana’a, on 6 June 2024. He remained in detention since then, without his family being allowed to contact him or obtain information about his condition, until they were notified of his death in detention.
Mohammed’s suffering extended beyond years of detention and forced separation from his family. His father passed away carrying the pain of waiting and longing for his son, while his mother and wife continue to endure the profound grief of his loss.
The Association expresses grave concern over the fate of approximately 70 United Nations employees detained by the group. Two deaths of UN employees have now been reported inside Houthi detention facilities: Ahmed Ba’alawi and Mohammed Al-Shami. The continued detention of the others raises serious concerns about their lives and safety, particularly given the lack of transparent information about their conditions of detention and health. This situation threatens to develop into a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe.
The Association holds the Houthi group fully responsible for the safety and lives of all those detained in its custody. It calls for the immediate and transparent disclosure of the circumstances surrounding Al-Shami’s death and the conditions of his detention, as well as an independent and credible investigation to identify those responsible and hold them accountable, ensuring that they do not escape justice.
The Association also calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all United Nations employees and all other abductees; disclosure of their places of detention and health conditions; permission for them to communicate with their families; provision of necessary medical care; and protection from torture, ill-treatment and all other forms of abuse.
The Abductees’ Mothers Association stresses that the threat to detainees’ lives is not limited to UN employees. It extends to thousands of abductees and forcibly disappeared persons held by the Houthi group, who face harsh detention conditions and ongoing violations while being deprived of their most fundamental human rights, foremost among them the rights to life, liberty and dignity.
We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all abductees, arbitrarily detained persons and forcibly disappeared individuals, without exception or discrimination; disclosure of the fate of everyone whose whereabouts remain unknown; and an end to the practices of abduction, arbitrary detention and torture.