Over 10 years, a human rights organization reveals that the Houthis committed half a million murders in Yemen

The "Erada Organization for Combating Torture and Enforced Disappearance" revealed that the Houthi militia committed more than 500,000 murders against Yemenis during the past ten years, in addition to issuing more than 600 death sentences and imprisonment against civilians, as part of a series of serious violations that amount to war crimes.

This came during an event to launch the organization's human rights reports, which was held in the "Opera" Hall in the Dutch city of The Hague, with a wide international presence of diplomatic missions, international organizations, journalists, and representatives of the United Nations Office in Geneva.

In the first report, entitled “Racial Discrimination between Class and Apartheid Policy,” the organization explained that since its coup in 2014, the Houthi militia has displaced more than 4.5 million Yemenis and thrown tens of thousands into secret prisons, where abductees were subjected to torture and enforced disappearance, leading to the death of 400 detainees and the permanent disability of others.

The report also documented the policy of racial discrimination pursued by the militia among citizens according to class and ethnic criteria, with the imposition of an inferior view on tribesmen and marginalized people. It also indicated the targeting of African immigrants with crimes of arson and mass killing, and the destruction of their camps, which resulted in the death of 64 immigrants and the injury of 203 others, in addition to the displacement and killing of dozens of others in different areas.

The second report, entitled “The Specialized Criminal Court in Sana’a: A Houthi Guillotine in White,” reviewed the violations committed by the militia through the Criminal Court in Sana’a, which issued death sentences against 600 abductees, in addition to long prison sentences against civilians, including children and employees of humanitarian organizations.

The report explained that all the rulings were issued by a court that lacked legitimacy, and was cancelled by a decision of the Supreme Judicial Council in Aden in 2018, as the militia exploited it to whitewash torture crimes and fabricate charges against detainees.

At the end of its report, the organization called on the international community and international organizations to take urgent action to hold accountable those responsible for the violations, send fact-finding teams, and open independent investigations into the crimes of murder, torture, and forced displacement.

It also called for addressing the arbitrary death sentences carried out by the Houthi Criminal Court, and ensuring the rights of African migrants to protection and asylum.