Related Articles
Egypt Independent
A Yemeni rights organisation accused both sides in the country’s civil war, on Tuesday, of “arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and torture of thousands in the past four years, in unofficial detention centres across Yemen”.
The Mwatana Organization for Human Rights said, it “documented over 1,600 cases of arbitrary detentions, 770 cases of forced disappearances, 344 cases of torture and at least 66 deaths in secret prisons run by the warring sides since April 2016”.
The group released an 87-page report identifying at least 11 unofficial detention centres across Yemen, where “torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are particularly prevalent”.
“The scale and severity of abuse has had significant societal impact”, it said. Many of the secret sites held people for lengthy periods, with the detainees’ families not knowing where their relatives were held until after their release or transfer to another detention”, the group said.
The report blamed the Houthis and militias trained and funded by the United Arab Emirates for most of the abuse. Forces loyal to the internationally recognized government were responsible for at least 65 cases of torture and over two dozen deaths in detention centres.
The report, titled, ‘In the Darkness: Abusive Detention, Disappearance and Torture in Yemen’s Unofficial Prisons’, was based on “2,566 interviews with former detainees, witnesses, relatives of detainees, activists, lawyers and backed with medical reports and photographic evidence”, the group said.
Yemeni officials on both sides of the conflict did not answer calls seeking comment, on Tuesday.
An investigation by The Associated Press in December 2018 showed that “thousands of Yemenis were imprisoned by the Houthis, many suffering extreme torture such as being smashed in their faces with batons, being hung from chains by their wrists or genitals for weeks at a time, and scorched with acid”.
In the Southern port city of Aden, which is controlled by UAE-backed separatist militias, the rights group said, “the secessionist Southern Transitional Council used two underground halls and rooms at the counter-terrorism agency as a detention centre”. Its report documented at least “18 cases of torture and two deaths at this secret prison”.
The AP revealed in 2018, that “hundreds of Yemenis swept up in anti-terror raids by Emirati-backed forces have been subjected to torture and sexual abuse aimed at brutalizing the detainees and extracting ‘confessions’ as part of a US-backed anti-terror campaign”.
