On Friday, the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, called on the Houthi rebels for the immediate handover of the body of a United Nations employee, Mohamad al Shami, who died while he was in custody of the Yemeni insurgency after being detained for more than two years.
Guterres’ spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, explained that Al Shami’s body, arrested along with other aid workers and members of the diplomatic corps since June 2024, “is still under the custody of the Houthi authorities,” and that there are already “contact persons” from the United Nations “speaking with the Houthis” in order to get them to agree to return it.
Asked about “any reason” why the Houthis refuse to hand over the body, Dujarric expressed his firm disapproval. “What reason could there be? There is no reason for them to continue holding 70 of our colleagues, and I can’t think of any reason why anyone would want to continue holding the corpse of a deceased person. His body must be returned to his family as soon as possible,” he urged.
For this reason, the spokesperson reiterated the organization’s and the Portuguese diplomat’s “call” for a “rapid, independent, impartial and effective investigation into the circumstances of his death.” At the same time, he urged the group to hand over Al Shami’s lifeless body to his relatives “without further delay, thereby allowing for a dignified burial.”
Dujarric also recalled that Al Shami is the second UN worker “to die while being arbitrarily detained by the Houthis. This raises serious concerns about the safety and well-being of all the other colleagues and of the rest of the humanitarian personnel who are held in a similar situation, in particular those who suffer from serious illnesses.”