Rights Organization Reveals Continued Detention of 70 Civilians from Dhamar by Houthis, Demands Their Release

Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:

The Mosaawa Organization for Rights and Freedoms renewed its call today for the release of more than 70 citizens from Dhamar Governorate who have been forcibly disappeared in Houthi prisons for over 86 days.

In a statement issued today, the organization expressed deep concern over their continued detention without allowing their families to know their places of detention or to communicate with them. It explained that Dhamar Governorate witnessed, during the months of September and October of last year, one of the largest campaigns of mass arrests and repression, targeting academics and political and social figures.

The organization noted that the group continues to forcibly disappear 74 civilians in its prisons in Sana’a and Dhamar, including the sick and the elderly, as part of a systematic policy aimed at terrorizing society and instilling fear among citizens. It held the group’s leadership in Dhamar Governorate fully responsible for the lives of these abductees and for their physical and psychological safety.

The organization affirmed that the continuation of these practices constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws, conventions, and treaties, foremost among them the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the four Geneva Conventions, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, all of which affirm that enforced disappearance against civilians is considered a crime against humanity.

The organization called on the international community to take urgent action to save the abductees and to exert real and effective pressure on the Houthi leadership to reveal their places of detention and to secure their immediate and unconditional release.

Mosaawa stressed the need for concerted local, regional, and international efforts to halt the ongoing violations committed by the Houthi group against civilians in areas under its control, ensure accountability for those responsible, and prevent impunity, emphasizing that international silence encourages the group to persist in its grave violations, thereby increasing the suffering of innocent civilians.