In conjunction with the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance (August 30), a Yemeni human rights network revealed that it had monitored 1,110 cases of kidnapping, enforced disappearance and torture of detainees, including 39 children and 46 women, during the first half of this year 2021, committed by the Houthi militia, in several governorates.
The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms documented in a report, during the period from January 1 to June 31, 2021, 976 cases of arbitrary disappearance and arrest of civilians, including 35 children and 38 women, 92 cases of enforced disappearance, and 42 cases Torture.
She said that the violations were distributed in the governorates of Sana’a, Dhamar, Ibb, Taiz, Al Hudaydah, Al Mahwit, Raymah, Al Jawf, Al Bayda, Al Dhale’, Amanat Al Asimah, Saada, Hajjah and Amran.
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The report documented 11 cases of torture, 18 cases of using human shields, 4 cases of liquidation inside prisons, 6 cases of death due to negligence in prisons, and 3 deaths of detainees from heart attacks.)
The categories included in the kidnapping, enforced disappearance and torture of detainees, documented in the report, varied between 374 labor categories and 112 politicians, 82 educators, 22 activists, 41 students, 12 merchants, 35 children, 118 social figures, 46 military personnel, 31 media professionals, 19 preachers and mosque preachers, 13 academics, 38 women, 12 foreigners, African refugees, 12 lawyers, and 9 doctors.
The network pointed out that the crimes of torture committed by the Houthi militia ranged from flogging, suspension, sleep deprivation, the use of salt on wounds, slapping, melting plastic on the body, torture by preventing drinking, complete health neglect, putting needles under nails, and burning with cigarettes.)
The report accused the Houthi militia of committing shocking crimes against detainees that amounted to sexual exploitation by Houthi militias, which did not stop at Yemeni detainees, and even non-Yemenis, where sexual torture is mainly practiced.
And eyewitnesses were quoted as saying that rape is used as a means to humiliate detainees, especially sons of merchants. They also rape the detainee and photograph him during the rape and use it as a means to force him to work for them.
