AL-MUKALLA: The family of slain UN worker Mohammed Al-Shami has accused the Iran-backed Houthis of failing to honor a promise to investigate his death.

The family has appealed to the international community to pressure the group to establish the circumstances of his death and release his body for burial.

On Oct. 31, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk announced that Al-Shami, a Yemeni colleague, had died in Houthi custody and called for an immediate investigation.

In a statement published by the Yemeni news website Al-Masdar Online and shared on social media on Wednesday, Al-Shami’s family said the Houthis — referred to as the “leadership in Sanaa” — had previously told them that a committee had been formed to investigate his death.

The family said it was told to wait two days for further information about how the investigation would proceed.

“Our family has welcomed this response and the directive to form an investigative committee,” the family said in the statement, adding that the circumstances surrounding Al-Shami’s death remain shrouded in mystery.

“To this day, his family does not know the cause of his death or when it occurred, having been denied any contact with him for 29 months.”

The Houthis abducted Al-Shami in June 2024. He was among dozens of Yemeni employees of the UN, international human rights organizations and humanitarian agencies seized during a series of crackdowns in Houthi-controlled areas since 2023.

Despite widespread condemnation of the arbitrary detentions, including from the UN, the Houthis have continued to hold the workers, denying many of them contact with their families and accusing some of spying for the US and Israel.

According to Al-Shami’s family, the militia failed to provide the promised update within two days.

Instead, the following day, they informed the family that a death certificate would be issued, but failed to provide any details about the circumstances of his death.

Frustrated by the lack of information, the family renewed its calls for an “urgent and transparent investigation” to establish the cause and date of Al-Shami’s death, formally communicate the findings and release his body for burial.

“For more than two years, our family was deprived of having Mohammed with us while he was alive.,” the family said in the statement.

“He, in turn, was denied contact with his loved ones and stripped of his most basic human rights. Now, having been informed of his death, his family remains deprived even of knowing how he passed away, or of the chance to bid him farewell and lay him to rest.”

The family also appealed to people “with living consciences” in Yemen and around the world, including the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, where Al-Shami worked, as well as human rights organizations and journalists, to support its demands.

“We urge you to intensify your efforts, continue your follow-up and advocacy to uncover the truth, ensure an independent and transparent investigation, hold all those found responsible to account, and work to enable his family to receive his body and lay him to rest with dignity.”

The family's appeal came as the UN said that Muin Shreim, the official leading its regional outreach efforts concerning the arbitrary detention of UN personnel, had met with senior Omani officials and Houthi chief negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam in the Omani capital, Muscat, to discuss efforts to secure the release of detained UN employees.

During the meetings, Shreim renewed calls for an investigation into Al-Shami’s death and urged the Houthis to allow detained UN personnel to contact their families, the UN said.

He also sought information about their health and safety, particularly those suffering from serious illnesses.

Yemeni journalists, human rights advocates and social media activists have also joined calls for the Houthis to investigate Al-Shami’s death and release the remaining detained humanitarian workers.

Ahmed Nagi Al-Nabhani, a Sanaa-based Yemeni civil society activist, launched an online petition calling for the release of two abducted health workers: Abdulnasser Al-Rubaai, an immunization officer with the World Health Organization, and Ali Al-Mudhwahi, a public health consultant with UNICEF who has worked in Yemen’s health sector for three decades.

The two Yemeni health specialists “have contributed to ensuring that Yemen derives maximum benefit from immunization programs against deadly childhood diseases — to the extent that some of these diseases have been completely eradicated from Yemen,” the petition said.

Ali Al-Fakih, editor of Al-Masdar Online, expressed concern that the Houthis might be deliberately delaying the investigation into Al-Shami’s death in order to conceal evidence and potentially portray it as having resulted from natural causes.

Al-Fakih told Arab News that others abducted could face a similar fate, warning that those who survive torture in Houthi detention facilities remain at risk of dying because of harsh prison conditions and inadequate medical care.

“Many detainees are held in dire conditions. Even those who do not die from torture face a high risk of death due to the abysmal detention environment and the denial of their right to healthcare and medical treatment,” Al-Fakih said.