ADEN: Houthi militias and Saleh loyalists have committed brutal violations of Yemeni people’s rights, including arbitrary arrests and abduction of civilians, between Jan. 1, 2016, and Dec. 31 of the same year, the Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations (YCMHR) said in its annual report.
The report documented 5,092 cases of violations, of which 4,882 are arbitrary arrests and 210 are cases of forced disappearance, all contravening international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
Most of the violations were committed by armed Houthis and by militias of ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh — 4,841 cases, or 95 percent of the total — while security authorities committed 124 violation.
The report, a copy of which was received by Arab News, shows that 2016 witnessed a wave of arbitrary arrests and abductions by the allied Houthi-Saleh militias, targeting various groups of society, including children and women.
According to the statistics in the report, which monitored violations in all governorates of the Republic of Yemen, Sanaa governorate comes in the first place, with the number violations reaching 693 cases.
Al-Baydah governorate comes in second, with 655 documented violations, followed by the governorate of Ebb, with 539 documented violations.
The governorate of Hodeidah came in fourth, with 506 cases, followed by Emran governorate, with 479 cases.
Arbitrary arrests and abductions also targeted women; 20 cases of abuse were recorded against them.
In 2016, Yemen’s children were subjected to severe forms of violations. The YCMHR field monitoring teams documented 118 cases of child abuse and three cases of enforced disappearance of children.
Politicians were most vulnerable to arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances.
According to the report, 1,032 violations were committed against politicians.
Activists and human rights defenders subjected to violations ranked third, with 702 cases violations documented in the report.