500 Houthi, Saleh detention camps in Yemen

According to local reports cited by Asharq Al-Awsat, there are about 500 detention camps and prisons run by Iran-backed Houthis and militias loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen, both in known and secret locations.

Earlier this week, Abaad Studies and Research Centre released a report in collaboration with the Sana’a Centre for Strategic Studies, stating that there had been 12,261 abduction cases in Yemen since the Houthi coup of September 2014.

Earlier yesterday, Houthi and Saleh militias kidnapped 18 people from Radea in Al-Bayda district.

Informed local sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that all 18 abductees belong to the Qayfah tribe. They said the detainees were transferred to the security department in Dhamar, which is now a prison camp.

Yemen, which is the Arab world’s poorest country, has been wracked by chaos since late 2014, when the Shia Houthis overran its capital city Sana’a and other parts of the country.

Yemen has been locked in a bitter battle between Houthi rebels allied with forces loyal to Saleh against government forces led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, along with local tribes and resistance forces backed by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition. Nearly 10,000 people have been killed as a result of the conflict and millions have been displaced.