As Yemen enters a new chapter of conflict, with all the uncertainty and fear it brings, what I hear when I speak to family and friends is “we are waiting it out, we don’t know what will happen next.” It speaks of extreme vulnerability, a bare life. And for the more than 145,000 people displaced in September, daily life has been turned upside down. This reminds us of the importance of humanitarian work at times like these and the ability to act quickly, mobilize resources, and provide the basic necessities of shelter, food, water, and medicine when crisis hits.

There is also essential but invisible humanitarian work that happens on the ground. Displaced families with very little to begin with are sharing the few resources they have with newly displaced families. Women prepare meals for the men on the frontlines who are protecting their areas from encroachment, knowing the bitter feeling of being abandoned by their own political and military leadership. Community organizations and initiatives in Taiz and Aden pull their weight to respond, despite years of concerted and systematic campaigns against them and violence used to close civic space.

There are also the brave humanitarian workers who stood their ground in Sana’a and Houthi-controlled areas for years, watching their colleagues disappear one after the other into Houthi detention, cut off from their families, facing torture, denied critical medical treatment, some perishing in prison. They also waited it out, uncertain whether their home or office would be raided next or whether the income that makes up a lifeline for family members would be suddenly severed. Many finally moved to Aden in 2025 when the UN relocated. Some non-UN humanitarian workers moved to Marib or Taiz. They now face the same fear again, with the Houthis at the doorstep of Taiz, frontlines heating up in Marib, and Aden feeling vulnerable.

At least 73 local UN staff remain in Houthi detention, along with many more from local and international civil society organizations. When the first wave of raids and arrests began in May 2024, there were questions about what protections were being put in place for detained aid workers, their families, and others at risk. Families were scrambling to deal with the situation on their own. According to accounts from UN humanitarian workers, service contracts make up more than 50 percent of the workforce in some agencies. These contracts are extremely precarious, renewed every 5-6 months with absolutely no security. When asked whether there had been any action within their agency to draw up protection plans for them and their families, the answer was, “No one cares. There’s a system to make sure we report daily that we’re okay and provide our contact information and location, but that’s it. We know that if something happens, we’re on our own.”

If the Houthis take Taiz, Aden, or other major cities, UN and NGO workers will be among the most exposed to Houthi retaliation. They would be targeted for working within an international aid system, which the Houthis deem espionage activity, and punished for having left and denied the militia group access to humanitarian aid it had been pillaging for years. These are people who risked their lives to support their country as it was collapsing and kept humanitarian work going in one of the world’s most difficult operating environments. Failing to act pre-emptively now puts thousands of lives at risk, and no amount of expressions of concern or post-facto attempts to negotiate releases will suffice.

It falls on UN agencies and humanitarian organizations to take every necessary step to protect these workers. That means ensuring their contracts provide the protections they need, that legal aid arrives promptly, and that they have options to keep themselves and their families safe, as they are at risk as a direct result of their work and association with an international body. Yemen’s aid workers have kept the country afloat. They deserve our protection.

This commentary is part of a series of publications produced by the Sana’a Center and funded by the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The series explores issues within economic, political, and environmental themes, aiming to inform discussion and policymaking related to Yemen that foster sustainable peace.