DUBAI, Feb 12, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - UN chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday condemned the death of a World Food Programme (WFP) staff member detained by Huthi rebels in Yemen, calling for an investigation into the "deplorable tragedy".

The employee was identified by WFP as a Yemeni staff member "arbitrarily detained by local authorities since 23 January", though the cause of death was not specified.

"The circumstances surrounding this deplorable tragedy remain unclear, and the United Nations is urgently seeking explanations from the Houthi de facto authorities," Guterres said in a statement. 

"I call for an immediate, transparent and thorough investigation and for those responsible to be held accountable."

WFP said the employee had worked for the United Nations since 2017 and left behind a wife and two children.

"WFP is grief-stricken and outraged about the death of a staff member while in detention in northern Yemen," the agency said on X.

The UN announced the suspension Monday of its activities in Yemen's Saada region, a Huthi stronghold, after the rebels detained multiple personnel there this year.

The Iran-backed Huthis have arrested dozens of staffers from the UN and other humanitarian organisations, most of them since the middle of 2024, as Yemen's civil war grinds on.

In January alone, the rebels detained eight UN workers, including six in Saada, which adds to the dozens of NGO and UN personnel detained since June.

The Huthis claimed the June arrests included "an American-Israeli spy network" operating under the cover of humanitarian organisations -- allegations emphatically rejected by the UN Human Rights Office.

A decade of war has plunged Yemen into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, according to the UN.