Report reveals thousands of Houthi violations during 2019‏

Yemeni Coalition to Monitor Human Rights Violations, known as Rasd Coalition, has revealed in its latest report thousands of violations carried out by Houthi militias in the country during 2019.

These violations ranged from killing, abducting, detaining, bombing, mine planting and torturing in prisons.

Head of Rasd’s Documentation and Monitoring Unit Riyad al-Dabai told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Saudi-led Coalition stressed the necessity of the immediate cessation of ground attacks against civilians. These include indiscriminate shelling, use of snipers and all other forms of attacks.

Dabai also called on Houthis to stop planting all forms of mines and submit maps of minefields to the National Demining Committee and the teams working in this field, Asharq Al-Awsat added.

“Women and children must be protected from all forms of abuse and exploitation,” he stressed.

Dabai stressed that they shall not be recruited, and those recruited shall be released, noting that all forms of mobilization in schools, places of worship and the media shall be halted.

The official highlighted the importance of releasing all those detained in an arbitrary manner, revealing the fate of all forcibly disappeared people in areas controlled by the group, closing private prisons and allowing the judiciary to exercise its constitutional and legal role on prisons.

In regards to Taiz city which has been besieged for nearly five years now, Dabai called for ending the siege and allowing humanitarian organizations to move without restrictions in all Yemeni governorates.

The Yemeni official also urged lifting the siege, ending practices that restrict the port of Hodeidah’s work, supplying all state resources to the central bank in Aden and abiding by all principles of international humanitarian law during the armed conflict.

He said this would ensure the protection of civilians and spare them all forms of targeting.

Dabai also called on the group to cooperate with the National Commission investigating human rights violations in Yemen and the UN Security Council and Human Rights Council’s teams of experts.