On February 12, 2025, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres demanded an investigation into the death of a World Food Progamme worker, killed after years-long Houthi captivity. It should be an easy investigation: That worker, a Yemeni national known publicly only by his first name Ahmed, would be alive today had Guterres not displayed lethal cowardice and incompetence.
[U.N. Secretary-General António] Guterres refused to move U.N. operations to Aden, even as Houthi leaders began to kidnap U.N. workers.
It has been more than a decade since the Houthis seized Yemen’s capital Sana’a. While they have maintained a stranglehold and reign of terror over the city and, indeed, much of northern Yemen, they did not win legitimacy. Yemen’s Internationally Recognized Government moved to Aden, the former capital of South Yemen and the largest Yemeni city outside Houthi control. Shortly after the Houthi occupation of Sana’a, the international community designated Aden to be Yemen’s temporary capital. The president of Yemen operates from the al-Ma’ashiq Palace, in Aden’s Crater District. While the Islamic Republic of Iran operates an embassy in Sana’a, most other countries either shuttered their embassies, moved their missions to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, or established temporary quarters in Aden.
Guterres, however, refused to move U.N. operations to Aden, even as Houthi leaders began to kidnap U.N. workers, mostly local nationals working for U.N. agencies. In 2021, for example, the Houthis kidnapped two Yemeni staff members of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as Yemeni staff members working for the U.S. Embassy. That number skyrocketed this past summer, between May and July 2024, as the Houthis kidnapped up to 72 aid workers. The Houthis kidnapped Ahmed on January 23, 2025, along with seven of his colleagues.
Not only did Guterres—and World Food Programme chief Cindy McCain—put U.N. employees at risk, but they also undermine U.N. programs by allowing U.N. agencies and employees to become hostages of Houthi authorities. The Houthis recognize that if they hold U.N. employees hostage, killing men like Ahmed every so often, the U.N. will refuse to speak up about Houthi abuses or diversion of aid for fear of suffering Houthi retaliation. If, on the other hand, the U.N. offices relocated to Aden, they could operate freely.
Feeding Houthi blackmail is neither competent nor necessary; it is craven.
Operating in Aden would not necessarily mean denying services across Houthi lines. After all, when Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq, the U.N. agencies operated not only in areas under Baghdad’s control but also in regions run by the Kurdistan Regional Government. As conflict returns to eastern Congo, U.N. agencies span the front lines, operating both in portions of the North Kivu province controlled by M23 and neighboring regions still under Kinshasa’s control.
Guterres’ actions are even more damaging, however. While foreign workers relocated to Aden, Guterres left Yemeni employees behind for the Houthis to prey upon. Both he and McCain essentially signaled that the lives of Yemeni employees were less valuable to the U.N. than those of European or American background.
Had Guterres instead cut off all assistance to the Houthis the second they seized a single hostage, he would have signaled to the Houthis intolerance of their tactics. He also would have firmly aligned the U.N. with its own policies, tying administration functions to the Internationally Recognized Government. Decisions have consequences. The U.N. should relocate all its offices in Yemen to Aden and portions of the country under the recognized government’s control. Feeding Houthi blackmail is neither competent nor necessary; it is craven. The Houthis are solely responsible for Ahmed’s death, but the negligence of Guterres and McCain made Houthi action possible. The only statements U.N. and World Food Programme leaders should issue are their own resignations.
