Head of the UN mission to Yemen’s Hodeidah General Abhijit Guha was in quarantine in Sanaa, refuting allegations that he was being detained by the Iran-backed Houthis that control the capital.

A UN official confirmed that Guha was self-isolating after he had returned to Yemen from Jordan. This is a medical measure, not a political one, amid the new coronavirus outbreak.

Guha is not in Houthi quarantine, but he was forced to self-isolate, just like every other person entering Yemen from abroad, said the official on condition of anonymity.

Spokesman for the operations to liberate the west coast, Waddah Dubaish had previously claimed that the Houthis detained Guha at a Sanaa hotel shortly after he had arrived to the city on Tuesday. He accused the militias of preventing him from heading to Hodeidah where he is based on a UN ship off the city’s coast. They also barred him from returning to the Jordanian capital Amman.

Spokesperson for the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA) Hanan al-Badawi revealed that the UN ship had sailed from Hodeidah to Mocha to transport government liaison officers.

She said that Guha was working from the UN headquarters in Sanaa and has contacted local officials to discuss a number of pressing issues.

He plans on returning to Hodeidah as soon as the ship returns from Mocha, she added.