The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedom said in a report that almost two-thirds of the 16,804 abductees were freed or executed by their captors, used as human shields, died in detention due to medical negligence or were used as part of prisoner swaps with the Yemeni government.
The organization said that the Houthis are still holding 4,201 civilians in known detention facilities in Sanaa, Ibb, Dhamar and other Yemeni provinces, in addition to 1,317 people, including 84 women and 76 children, who are believed to have been forcibly disappeared and tortured, though the Houthis deny holding them.
“Those are civilians taken by the Houthi militia from roadways, residences, workplaces, mosques, marketplaces, neighborhoods and other sites,” Mohammed Al-Omada, head of the Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms, told Arab News.
“In the report, we excluded military and security personnel, as well as popular resistance fighters who were kidnapped by the Houthis. Based on conversations with former inmates and families of prisoners, our human rights specialists validated each instance.”
The human rights activist said that the Houthis are keeping the majority of detainees in state prisons such as Political Security in Sanaa, Central Prison in Ibb province, Central Prison in Dhamar and Central Prison in Amran.
Other captives were imprisoned in the former homes of Houthi opponents in Sanaa, including the old residence — now a detention center — of Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmer, the former vice president who fled the capital shortly after the militia invaded the city.
The Houthis have abducted 389 politicians, 464 activists, 340 media personnel, 176 children, 374 women, 512 tribal leaders and social dignitaries, 216 preachers and clerics, 154 academics, 217 students, 96 lawyers and judges in addition to hundreds of medics, government employees, foreigners and traders over the last eight years, according to the organization.
“During interrogation, many inmates endure beatings, abuse and humiliation,” the Yemeni organization said.
“Everyone who speaks to the security personnel in the building or makes any demands, including for medicine or a drink of water, is beaten and tortured, and some of them were tortured to death,” it added.
Among the 16,804 kidnapped civilians, the Houthis utilized 463 captives as human shields within military installations to deter the Arab coalition and Yemeni government from launching attacks. The militia executed 147 detainees inside detention facilities, and 282 captives died behind bars as a result of negligence.
Ninety-eight captives died just days after release by the Houthis.
“Following the Houthi militia’s takeover and control of the provinces, every family has a sad story about a prisoner or the Houthis raiding their homes or recruiting their children,” Al-Omada said.
The figures from the Yemeni organization came as another Yemeni group called for the release of a number of detainees kept by the Houthis. The captives had staged hunger strikes in order to put pressure on the militia to free them or improve their detention circumstances and stop the use of torture.
The Mothers of Abductees Association, an umbrella organization representing thousands of female relatives of civilian war prisoners, said it received an urgent request from the wife of prisoner Adel Tareq Al-Baydani, who fasted for two weeks in protest against indefinite detention and maltreatment, to save him from death.
“Al-Baydani’s wife appealed for her husband’s release, citing serious health circumstances and stating that the Houthi group threatened hunger strikers, including elderly people, with relocation to the prison’s basement if they did not terminate the strike,” the organization tweeted.
Omani mediators have been unable to persuade the Iran-backed Houthis to renew a truce brokered by the United Nations, which ended last month, as the Yemeni government confronts mounting public pressure to begin military operations to punish the Houthis for hitting oil facilities, a government official told Arab News on Saturday.
Oman — which hosts Houthi officials — intervened after other mediators, including the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg, had tried and failed to get the Houthis to agree to prolong the truce.
Despite pressure from Oman, the Houthis rejected the UN envoy’s plan for peace in Yemen, which calls on the group to pay public employees in their territories, and partly de-escalate their siege of Taiz, among other conditions.
“Even the Omanis were unable to make a breakthrough. They are, nevertheless, making an effort,” the Yemeni government official, who requested anonymity, said.
Despite the Yemeni government allowing commercial flights to depart from Sanaa airport and facilitating the arrival of more than 50 fuel ships in Houthi-controlled Hodeidah, the Houthis have continued their siege of Taiz, have still not paid public servants from the oil revenues, and have continued attacks on residential areas in Taiz and other cities. All these actions are in breach of the terms of the UN-brokered truce.
To make matters worse, the Houthis launched drone assaults on oil terminals in southern Yemen, causing the country’s oil shipments to halt for the first time in years.
As international mediation failed and Houthi attacks mounted, the country’s Presidential Leadership Council has faced mounting pressure to resume military operations and abandon UN-brokered peace agreements with the Houthis.
The same Yemeni official said that political leaders, military officials, and even some council members have requested that military options be used to force the Houthis to accept the peace plans. However, the Yemeni government chose to respond to the Houthi escalation with political and economic pressure, despite the requests.
“Prudence is required in this situation,” the official said.
The Yemeni government labeled the Houthis terrorists — and asked that the international community do the same — last month after they attacked oil facilities and ships in the provinces of Shabwa and Hadramout.
The Yemeni government also adopted strong economic measures, including shifting large corporations’ headquarters to Aden, urging foreign shipping firms to avoid doing business with Houthi-controlled ports, and blacklisting traders who do business with the Houthis.
Yemen’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Awadh bin Mubarak met with Barbara A. Leaf, the US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, on Friday and asked that America back the Yemeni government’s punitive actions against the Houthis, and that it label the militia as terrorists.
Those who support the use of military force against the Houthis, including Yahiya Abu Hatem, a military analyst and adviser to Yemen’s defense minister, argue that the international community and Yemen’s government have exhausted all peaceful means of persuading the Houthis to cooperate with efforts to end the war.
“It is extremely difficult to negotiate a peaceful solution with an organization that threatens the Yemeni people and their wealth. With this group, a military operation is the only viable choice,” Abu Hatem
