The Houthi rebels and an aid organization said on Saturday that the death toll from an air strike launched by the Saudi-led coalition on a prison run by the rebels in Yemen has reached at least 82 detainees. Internet access in the Arab world’s poorest country remains largely disabled, according to the Associated Press.
The air raid that took place in the northern province of Saada, on Friday, was part of an intense air and ground attack that represents an escalation in the Yemeni civil war that has been going on for years.
Saudi Arabia denied the circulated reports about targeting a detention center in the Yemeni governorate of Saada, describing these reports as “unfounded.”
The conflict is between the internationally recognized government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, and the Iranian-backed rebels.
The escalation comes after the Houthis claimed a drone and missile attack that targeted the UAE capital earlier this week.
It also comes at a time when government forces, with the help of UAE-backed forces and air strikes from the coalition, have regained control of the entire Shabwa province from the Houthis and put pressure on them in the central province of Ma’rib, according to the Associated Press.
There, the Houthis tried to control the provincial capital for a year.
Ahmed Mahat, MSF’s head of mission in Yemen, told The Associated Press that they had counted at least 82 dead and more than 265 wounded in the airstrike.
The Houthi media office stated that rescuers are still searching for survivors and bodies under the rubble of the prison site in Saada Governorate, on the border with Saudi Arabia.
The spokesman for the Saudi coalition, Brigadier General Turki Al-Maliki, claimed that the Houthis had not informed the United Nations or the International Committee of the Red Cross that the site needed protection from air strikes. He also claimed that the Houthis’ failure to do so represented the militia’s “usual deceitful approach” to the conflict.
The Houthis have used the prison to detain migrants, mostly Africans, who tried to cross through the war-torn country into Saudi Arabia, according to the charity Save the Children.
But Mahat, a representative for Doctors Without Borders, said the airstrike hit a different area of the facility that houses other types of detainees. He added that the migrants are there safely.
The Saada attack came on the heels of another Saudi-led coalition air strike on Friday in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah that hit a key communications center critical to Yemen’s internet connection.
Internet access remained “largely disabled for more than 24 hours” in the country, NetBlocks said on Saturday.
The air assault in Saada, one of the deadliest in the Yemeni war, was not the first to hit a Houthi-run prison.
In September 2019, an air strike targeted a detention center in the southwestern province of Dhamar, killing more than a hundred people and wounding dozens.
Human rights organizations have previously documented the Houthis’ use of civilian detainees as human shields by placing them in detention facilities near military barracks under the constant threat of air strikes.
The air strikes that took place on Friday in Saada and Hodeidah renewed criticism of the coalition from the United Nations, aid organizations and human rights organizations.
The strikes of the Saudi-led coalition have hit schools, hospitals, and wedding parties, killing thousands of civilians.
At the same time, the Houthis used child soldiers and laid landmines indiscriminately across the country.
They have launched cross-border attacks using ballistic missiles and explosive-laden drones on Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The latest escalation of fighting in Yemen is the most intense since the 2018 battle in Hodeidah, and comes after a year of US and UN diplomatic efforts that failed to bring the two sides to the negotiating table.
The rebels have long resisted calls from the United Nations and the United States to halt the assault on the oil-rich Marib province. The Houthis have been trying for a year to seize Marib to complete their control over the northern half of Yemen. This is likely to give them the upper hand in any future negotiations.