Arbitrary Detentions and Disappearances

All parties to the conflict have been suppressing freedom of expression and association through arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, harassment, torture and other ill-treatment, and unfair trials.

The internationally recognized Yemeni government has harassed, threatened and arbitrarily detained activists, including human rights activists. UAE-backed forces in southern Yemen conducted a campaign of arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearance of individuals who were being held in a network of secret prisons, in conditions amounting to what would constitute war crimes.

Huthi forces have arbitrarily arrested and detained critics and opponents as well as journalists, human rights activists and members of the Baha’i community. Amnesty International has documented the cases of 66 individuals, the vast majority men, who were brought before the Sana’a-based Specialized Criminal Court (SCC) – a court traditionally reserved for terrorism-related cases – in relation to their peaceful activities. In all the documented cases, the Huthis and their allied forces subjected the individuals to scores of violations, including enforced disappearance, arbitrary detentions and torture and ill-treatment.

Conditions in prisons and detention centres, including mass overcrowding of detention cells, inadequate access to health care, sufficient food, clean water and sanitation, caused COVID-19 to spread in Huthi-run prisons exposing detainees to substantial health risks. All parties failed to take measures to protect detainees and curb the spread of the virus in prisons and detention centers through the provision of masks or other hygiene products.

Below are some of these individuals detained by the Huthi de facto authorities, and whom Amnesty International has been campaigning for:

HAMID HAYDARA

Hamid Haydara is a Yemeni of Baha’i affiliation who, like others in his community, has been made to sacrifice years of his life simply as a result of his religious affiliation. Detained since December 2013, he was subjected to a fundamentally flawed judicial process, that included allegations of him having been tortured and ill-treated in custody. In January 2018 the SCC sentenced him to death.

In March 2020, the Huthi de facto authorities announced the decision to release Hamid Haydara and revoke the death sentence. He was released on 5 July 2020 but was forced into exile.

THE TEN JOURNALISTS

In the summer of 2015, the Huthis detained a group of 10 journalists, Abdelkhaleq Amran, Hisham Tarmoom, Tawfiq al-Mansouri, Hareth Hamid, Hasan Annab, Akram al-Walidi, Haytham al-Shihab, Hisham al-Yousefi, Essam Balgheeth and Salah al-Qaedi.

They remained without charge or trial since their detention in 2015. They were finally brought to trial before the SCC in December 2019. Over the course of their detention, the men were forcibly disappeared, held in intermittent incommunicado detention and solitary confinement, were deprived of access to medical care and at least three of them were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment.

In April 2020, the SCC ordered the release of six of them, and sentenced to death the remaining four, Akram al-Walidi, Abdelkhaleq Amran, Tawfiq al-Mansouri and Hareth Hamid.

Out of the six journalists acquitted by the SCC, The Huthi de facto authorities released Salah al-Qaedi on 26 April 2020; and the remaining five on 15 October 2020 as part of the prisoner exchange, five and a half months after their acquittal.

YOUSSEF AL-BAWAB

Youssef al-Bawab, a father of five, is a linguistics professor and political figure. He was arbitrarily arrested in October 2016 as he was coming out of his local mosque in Sana’a. Later that night, the Huthis raided his house and confiscated his belongings. It took his relatives three months to locate him and visit him. The circumstances of his arrest, followed by the authorities’ refusal to disclose his fate and whereabouts amount to an enforced disappearance. In April 2017 he was charged with several offences, including assisting the Saudi Arabia and UAE-led coalition with intelligence regarding military objectives and organizing assassinations; most of these charges carry the death penalty. Throughout his detention, proceedings against Youssef al-Bawab were seriously flawed.

On 9 July 2019, the SCC sentenced him and 29 others, mostly academics and political figures, to death on charges of spying for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, following a grossly unfair trial marred by due process violations. The 30 men, who were all arrested between 2015 and 2016, are in the process of appealing their sentence.

ASMAA AL-OMEISSY

In 2016, Asmaa al-Omeissy, a mother of two, was on her way to Sana’a when the Huthis stopped her at a checkpoint and detained her. She was then subjected to a brutal ordeal that led her to become the first known Yemeni woman on death row on “state-security” charges.

During her detention, she was severely beaten herself, and forced to watch two other detainees hung from the ceiling by their wrists as they were kicked and punched. It was not until May 2017 that she was finally charged and referred to the SCC which usually handles “terrorism” and “state security” cases. While the three men in the same case were released on bail, she remained in custody and on 30 January 2017, the judge sentenced her to death. On 9 July 2019 the judge reversed her death sentence and handed her a 15-year prison sentence instead.

Civilians’ Struggle for Survival

As well as causing the deaths and injuries of thousands of civilians, the parties to the conflict have exacerbated an already severe humanitarian crisis resulting from years of poverty and poor governance causing immense human suffering.

Given the protracted nature of the conflict, the coping mechanisms of the civilian population are exacerbated and stretched thin. Some 24.1 million Yemenis today require humanitarian assistance to survive. According to UNICEF, the conflict has left at least 500,000 public sector workers without salaries for three years, and the organization estimates that 12.24 million children are in need.

The dire economic conditions have worsened the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the country. With the inflation of the Yemeni Riyal and the government unable to pay public sector salaries, September 2018 saw a wave of demonstrations spreading across the south of Yemen, with people protesting against corruption and blaming the government for the deterioration of the economy, which has left the vast majority of Yemenis unable to buy basic commodities.

In the intervening time, the on-off battle for Hodeidah that started in late 2017 resulted in hundreds of civilian causalities; the UN reported that nearly a million people fled the governorate during the year. According to people who fled, mined roads, Huthi checkpoints and the hazards along the way meant that, for some, what should be on average a six-hour drive from Hodeidah to Aden became a terrifying ordeal lasting up to three days.

Human rights violations and abuses by all sides

All parties to the conflict in Yemen committed serious violations of international humanitarian law. Huthi forces, which control large parts of the country, indiscriminately shelled residential neighbourhoods in Yemen and launched missiles indiscriminately into Saudi Arabia. The coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which supported the internationally recognized Yemeni government, continued to bomb civilian infrastructure and carry out indiscriminate attacks, killing and injuring hundreds of civilians.

Since 2015, the Saudi and UAE-led Coalition carried out scores of indiscriminate and disproportionate air strikes on civilian and civilians’ objects, hitting homes, schools, hospitals, markets, mosques, weddings and funerals. Amnesty International documented 42 coalition air strikes that appear to have violated international humanitarian law, many of which amount to war crimes. These have resulted in 518 civilian deaths and 433 civilian injured.

On 28 June, a precision-guided munition made in the USA was used in a coalition air strike on a residential home in the governorate of Ta’iz, killing six civilians. Among those killed were three children. On 1 September, an air strike on a Huthi-controlled detention facility in the south-western city of Dhamar killed 130 detainees and injured 40 others.

Amnesty International has documented the Coalition’s use of six different types of cluster munitions, including US, UK, Brazilian-manufactured models in Sana’a, Hajjah, Amran and Sa’da governorates.

Imprecise weapons are used on daily basis in residential areas, causing civilian causalities such indiscriminate attack violate the laws of war.

We buried them the same day because they had turned into severed limbs. There were no corpses left to examine. The flesh of this person was mixed with that person. They were wrapped up [with blankets] and taken away.

A family member of victims of an air strike on a home in Warzan, Ta’iz governorate from Hodeidah told Amnesty International in August 2019

Armed groups also stand accused of a variety of human rights abuses, including the use of imprecise weapons in residential areas. Since 2015, Amnesty International has documented the impact of the continuing armed conflict in Ta’iz, including indiscriminate shelling by Huthi forces as well as other militias that have led to hundreds of casualties.

Similarly, in May 2018, Amnesty International interviewed 34 civilians who arrived in Aden after the clashes displaced them from several villages and towns in Hodeidah governorate. They spoke of terrifying mortar attacks, air strikes, landmines and other dangers amid the new Hodeidah offensive. Huthi forces also deliberately militarized hospitals by positioning fighters on the roof of a fully functioning hospital in Hodeidah, placing numerous civilians inside the building in danger.

I also saw a man walking as fast as he could while carrying a bag of his own urine. He was still attached to a urinary catheter while making his escape. The scene will stay with me for the rest of my life. There were many children too. Some parents were carrying their children. I saw 10 or 12 children among everyone else trying to flee.

A medical worker at al-Thawra Hospital

Notwithstanding the military operations, all parties to the conflict have also actively contributed to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The Coalition has imposed restrictions on the entry of essential goods and aid such as food, fuel and medical supplies into Yemen, while the Huthi de facto authorities have obstructed the movement of humanitarian aid within the country. These restrictions have adversely impacted Yemeni civilians’ access to basic and necessary services, including food and clean water. They have severely impacted provision of health care, partly as a result of the lack of availability of fuel to run hospitals.

The continued conflict led to a political and security vacuum and the establishment of a safe haven for armed groups and militias, assisted by outside states. An investigation by Amnesty International revealed that children as young as eight years old were raped in the Yemeni city of Ta’iz. The suspected perpetrators, including members of militias backed by the Coalition, are yet to be held to account.