The UN on Monday announced the suspension of all humanitarian operations in Yemen's Houthi-controlled region of Saada, after the detention of eight more UN staff.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has ordered all UN agencies, funds and programmes to halt activities in Saada governorate due to the lack of necessary security guarantees, deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.
“This extraordinary and temporary measure seeks to balance the imperative to stay and deliver with the need to have the safety and security of the UN personnel and its partners guaranteed,” Mr Haq said.
The pause is intended to “give time to the de facto authorities and the United Nations to arrange the release of arbitrarily detained UN personnel and ensure that the necessary conditions are in place to deliver critical humanitarian support", he added.
In late January, the UN announced that the Iran-backed Houthis had detained seven staff members, a number that has now been revised to eight.
Since the group took Yemen's capital Sanaa and ousted the internationally recognised government in 2014, the Houthis have been accused of kidnapping, arbitrarily detaining and torturing hundreds of civilians, including UN and NGO personnel.
In June, the Houthis detained 13 UN staff members, including six from the Human Rights Office, more than 50 charity workers and a US embassy employee. The group claimed it had uncovered “an American-Israeli spy network” operating under the guise of humanitarian organisations. The allegation was strongly rejected by the UN Human Rights Office.
In early August, the Houthis stormed the UNHCR office in Yemen, seizing keys, documents and property before returning them later that month.
Seven UN agencies, including the World Food Programme, the World Health Organisation and Unicef, are active in Saada, along with international aid organisations, according to the world body. Late last month, the UN suspended all travel into areas controlled by the Houthi rebels.
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Gertrude Bell's life in focus
A feature film
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
MATCH INFO
Real Madrid 2
Vinicius Junior (71') Mariano (90 2')
Barcelona 0
Paatal Lok season two
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Newcastle United 0 Tottenham Hotspur 2
Tottenham (Alli 61'), Davies (70')
Red card Jonjo Shelvey (Newcastle)
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
