SANAA – Huthi rebel-controlled media in Yemen said yesterday that US strikes hit a migrant detention centre in the movement’s stronghold of Saada, killing at least 68 people. 

The US military has hammered the Iran-backed Huthis with near-daily strikes since 15 March in an operation dubbed “Rough Rider”, seeking to end the threat they pose to vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. 

The Huthis launched strikes targeting Israel and Western vessels in the Red Sea, in what they describe as solidarity with the Palestinians, since Hamas conducted the worst-ever attack on Israel in October 2023. 

On Sunday, the US said it had hit more than 800 targets in Yemen since mid- March, killing hundreds of Huthi rebels, including members of the group’s leadership. Just hours later, Huthi media said the latest barrage by US forces had hit a migrant detention centre. “The civil defence has announced that 68 African migrants were killed and 47 others wounded in the US attack targeting a centre for illegal migrants in the city of Saada,” the Huthis’ Al-Masirah TV said. 

AFP could not independently confirm the veracity of Al-Masirah’s claim that the strikes had hit a migrant detention centre, or the toll. 

AFP has contacted the US military for comment. According to a statement cited by Al-Masirah from the Huthi administration’s interior ministry, the centre housed “115 migrants, all from Africa”. 

The broadcaster showed footage of bodies stuck under the rubble, and of rescuers working to help the casualties. Each year, tens of thousands of migrants brave the Eastern Route from the Horn of Africa, seeking to escape conflict, natural disasters and poor economic prospects by sailing across the Red Sea towards the oil-rich Gulf. 

Many hope for employment as labourers or domestic workers in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries, though they face a perilous journey through war-torn Yemen. The UN migration agency (IOM) said it was closely monitoring the situation following the latest strike, but said the facility in question was not being managed by their personnel. 

“It is imperative that all efforts are made to avoid harm to civilians, and to protect those most vulnerable in these challenging circumstances,” the IOM said in a statement. 

– Nampa/AFP