Secretary of Musawah Organization to “Yemen Monitor”: Houthis Arrested 150 People in Dhamar Within a Week and Assaulted Women and Children
Yemen Monitor / Marib / Exclusive:
Najib Al-Shaghdari, Secretary-General of the Musawah Organization for Rights and Freedoms, stated in an exclusive declaration to “Yemen Monitor” that the Houthi group arrested more than 150 citizens from various districts of Dhamar governorate (central Yemen), assaulted women and children, and looted private property during the campaign of raids and arrests that began a week ago.
He added that the campaign, which the Houthi group began late Tuesday night, October 28, 2025, and continued until the evening of the same day, targeted more than 80 social and educational figures belonging to the Yemeni Islah Party. Additionally, during Thursday and Friday, October 30-31, more than 70 individuals belonging to the Salafi current were arrested.
The Secretary of the Musawah Organization explained that the Houthis raided the homes of the detainees with military and security forces, looted private property including computers and money, and assaulted women and children during the raids, before transferring all detainees to unknown locations, believed to be the building of the Security and Intelligence Service in Dhamar.
Al-Shaghdari stated that during Thursday and Friday, October 30-31, the Houthis arrested more than 70 individuals belonging to the Salafi current, including women and children, who had been displaced to Dhamar after being forcibly evicted from the Salafist center in Sa’wan, Sana’a. He noted that they were released on Monday, November 3.
Al-Shaghdari affirmed that the Houthis continue the enforced disappearance of dozens of political detainees and activists in their prisons in Dhamar governorate, where they are living in extremely difficult humanitarian and health conditions. Among them is Dr. Aaidh Al-Sayadi, a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Party, who was kidnapped on September 25 and remains forcibly disappeared until now, and Saddam, the son of the General People’s Congress leader Hussein Al-Soufi, who has remained detained for more than two years.
He mentioned that the Houthis transferred a number of detainees, arrested in connection with the September 26 Revolution celebrations, to the Security and Intelligence prison in Sana’a. They are: Mohammad Mohammad Saleh Al-Yafaei (57, educator and community activist), Abdullah Mohammad Ali Al-Bukhiti (58, educator and poet), Mohammad Mohsen Badi (45, educator), and Khalid Saleh Muqbil Al-Kulaibi (49, community activist).
Al-Shaghdari revealed that 21 young men in Dhamar governorate belonging to the Islah Party have been sentenced to death since 2020 on political charges, and others have been detained for more than nine years, including the educator and poet Ali Ghalib Al-Ansi, the trainer Mohammad Hussein Al-Qamadi, and the government employee Mohammad Abdulsalam Al-Munqidhi.
