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Yemen’s Ambassador to the U.N.: 4,000 Arrested by Houthis | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Pro-government fighters ride in the trunk of a car in the southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen, on November 21, 2016. Photo – Reuters


Aden- Yemen’s ambassador to the U.N. Khalid Hussein al-Yamani said the total registered number of detainees and abducted by the Houthi and Saleh militias reached 4,414 – According to Yamani, the arrested are activists, politicians and journalists in addition to some workers.

Yamani, in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said that there are around 204 children among the kidnapped in addition to around 91 from the academics and instructors. He also said that Sana’a recorded the highest rate of kidnapping by the militias with around 2,973 abducted.

The letter sent by Yamani to Ban Ki-moon also triggered the sufferings of the abducted, knowing that their number is increasing because arresting operations have not stopped in regions ruled by Saleh and Houthis militias. Most of the arrested face no charges, he affirmed.

“During the previous period, I continued to receive messages from children who were deprived from their fathers – Mariam, 7, is one of these children and she is telling me about her father journalist Abdul Khaleq Umran,” Yamani said in his letter.

He continued, “Unfortunately no progress has been achieved in this case and none of the kidnapped was released – as a matter of fact, arrests increased. Unfortunately, this topic was not paid enough attention by international organizations and media.”

Yemen’s ambassador to the U.N. concluded his letter saying, “Allow me to transfer these appeals from the fathers, mothers, wives and children of the kidnapped and their requests to exert pressure on Houthi and Saleh militias in Yemen to release the kidnapped as soon as possible.”