April 24, 2025

The Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations (Rasd Coalition) is following with deep concern the arbitrary detention campaigns by the Houthi group in several governorates, including Al Mahwit, Sana'a, and Sa'da, for days now.

Rasd Coalition is monitoring the violations accompanying these intimidating campaigns and the fear and panic they cause among the civilians. The Coalition strongly warns the Houthi group that the continuation of these systematic violations and actions aimed at terrorizing people will have significant repercussions.

Rasd Coalition is calling for immediate cessation of these violations and release of detainees and abductees, and urges the international community and international actors to exert pressure in this regard. Rasd Coalition obtained confirmed information through its field researchers indicating that Houthi militants broke into several homes in the village of Qablat Ibn Abdullah in the Madinah district of Al Mahwit Governorate. The researchers stated that a day after a missile fell on the village on April 20, a Houthi force arrived from the governorate center in two military vehicles and raided several homes, arresting six citizens: Abdul Aziz Muhammad Saghir Nayef Al Ashmouri, Muhammad Yahya Ahmed Al Abadi, Nassar Nasser Ali Al Ashmouri, Mithaq Abdullah Al Harazi, Issam Abdo Abdullah Maznoun, and Adeeb Muhammad Muhammad Al Sayrani. The individuals had filmed and published videos documenting the moments and remnants of a missile explosion, which the group claims was American. However, it was most likely a Houthi missile launched from Amran Governorate toward the Red Sea and landed in the village.

Houthis group also launched a widespread arrest campaign in the capital, Sana'a, targeting approximately 30 citizens for documenting the aftermath of a missile explosion in the Farwa popular market in the Shu'ub district, which resulted in dozens of civilian deaths and injuries. According to information obtained by Rasd Coalition, the detainees were distributed among several police stations, while the majority were detained at the Himyar Police Station in the capital, Sana'a, where they are undergoing intensive investigations amid tight security measures.

Mutahhar Al-Buthiji, CEO of the Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations, said: "We call on the Houthi group to immediately cease these violations, which are criminalized by international humanitarian law and human rights law. These violations include arrests, abduction, enforced disappearances, and the suppression of freedom of opinion and expression. We also call on them to cease all their violations of the basic rights of Yemeni citizens." He added, "We also call on civil society, official institutions, and international organizations to pressure the Houthis and work to raise these issues at the highest levels, ensuring that no criminal escapes punishment. He conclude, "It is clear that the impunity of those responsible for the crimes committed in Yemen over the past decade is a major reason for this encroachment and the perpetration of these crimes." While Rasd Coalition views these campaigns as a new escalation in the Houthi group's repressive policy toward freedom of expression, it fears that the group will succeed in obscuring even some of the heinous crimes it is committing.

Rasd Coalition believes that this behavior reveals nothing but a systematic effort to control the media narrative and mislead public opinion to evade responsibility and continue its sleight-of-hand and gamble with the lives of Yemenis.