Organization: Houthi Group Forcibly Disappears 74 Civilians in Dhamar for Months
Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:
Mosaawah Organization for Rights and Freedoms renewed its call today for the Houthi movement to release more than 74 citizens from Dhamar Governorate (central Yemen), who have been forcibly disappeared for over 124 days.
In a statement, the organization said the group refuses to allow the families of the disappeared to know their places of detention or communicate with them since their arrest four months ago.
The statement explained that among the detainees are sick individuals and elderly people, noting that enforced disappearance is a systematic policy aimed at terrorizing society and instilling fear among citizens. It held the group’s leadership in Dhamar fully responsible for the lives of the abductees and their physical and psychological safety.
The organization stressed that the continuation of these practices constitutes a flagrant violation of all international laws, agreements, and treaties — foremost among them the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the Geneva Conventions, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — all of which affirm that enforced disappearance of civilians is considered a crime against humanity.
It called on the international community to act urgently to save the detainees and to exert real and effective pressure on the Houthi leadership to disclose their places of detention and release them immediately and unconditionally.
Mosaawah emphasized the need for coordinated local, regional, and international efforts to stop the group’s ongoing violations against civilians in areas under its control, ensure accountability for those responsible, and prevent impunity. It warned that international silence encourages the group to persist in grave abuses, increasing the suffering of innocent civilians.
The Houthi group has carried out a wide campaign of abductions in Dhamar Governorate targeting academics as well as political and social figures, in what is described as one of the largest waves of mass repression the governorate has witnessed since the group’s takeover against the internationally recognized government.
