Women are demanding Yemen’s officials deliver information on their imprisoned sons detained in an UAE-run prison, the Association of Mothers of Abductees said during a protest in Aden Sunday.
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"We call on the government, the minister of the interior and the Attorney-General to reveal the fate of the dozens of missing prisoners and to uncover their secret places of detention," said the association said in a statement.
Dozens of mothers gathered outside the interior minister’s home demanding the state share its plans for the 86 imprisoned men who were promised their freedom after staging a month-long hunger strike at the Bir Ahmed prison to protest their detention.
Run by Security Belt militia, an affiliate of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Bir Ahmed prison is one of many facilities to be accused by human rights groups of operating under inhuman conditions and employing torture during interrogations.
Some detainees have been reportedly sexually abused or sleep deprived, while a report published by Al Jazeera in September denounced the Emirati army’s use of electric cables, wooden bats, and steel poles against prisoners.
Sunday’s demonstration is a nearly weekly event in the community as families continue to pressure state officials for information on their imprisoned friends and relatives.
The Yemeni war started in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and 12 of its regional allies formed a coalition to restore the pro-Saudi government into power after the Houthi movement took over the capital Sanaa. Saudi Arabia and its allies, who have received logistic and intelligence support for their intervention from the United States and other Western allies, have been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Yemen over intentionally targeting civilians as well as allegations of torture.
Rights groups have criticized the coalition for air strikes that have killed over 10,000 civilians at hospitals, schools, and markets and left millions on the brink of starvation.