Al-Houthi militia bury 43 Ethiopian fire victims ... and accusations of hiding the true numbers
English - Saturday 13 March 2021 الساعة 06:09 pm
Sanaa, NewsYemen:
The Houthi militia announced that it had buried the bodies of dozens of African immigrants in Sanaa, who died in a fire in the immigration detention center at the Immigration and Passports Authority, in light of human rights accusations for the militia of concealing the true numbers of dead, which far exceed the announced number.
While conflicting human rights statistics estimate the number of deaths in the fire in the hundreds, the Houthi militia said that, on Friday, 43 Ethiopian immigrants who died in the fire were killed. Claiming that the burial of the bodies came in response to a request from members of the Ethiopian community in Yemen.
This step comes in light of human rights accusations against the Houthi militia of detaining hundreds of migrants in a center that humiliates their humanity and does not respect international standards, extorting them financially, causing the outbreak of fire, concealing the numbers of dead, and not allowing access to health workers for the wounded. He ignored calls for the need to open an independent and transparent investigation to determine the circumstances of the crime.
The survivors of the fire and the families of the victims confirmed that dozens of bodies were charred and were buried at night, and the Houthis refused to provide any information about them. Noting that more than 400 Africans, most of them from the Ethiopian Ormu minority, were in the detention ward where the fire occurred.
Eyewitnesses add that the detention center has been overcrowded since last February with Africans who were taken by the Houthi gunmen from the streets and headquarters of their businesses in hospitals and commercial centers located in the heart of the capital, Sana'a, noting that some of the detainees held identity papers and legal residency.
