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Hodeidah Inmates Face Torture for Refusing Houthi Recruitment

Pro-government Popular Resistance on the outskirts of Hodeidah, EPA
Pro-government Popular Resistance on the outskirts of Hodeidah, EPA
    Sanaa, Hodeidah – Asharq Al-Awsat
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Hodeidah Inmates Face Torture for Refusing Houthi Recruitment

Pro-government Popular Resistance on the outskirts of Hodeidah, EPA
Pro-government Popular Resistance on the outskirts of Hodeidah, EPA

Inmates held at the central prison in Hodeidah refused to fight alongside Houthi militias prompting Houthi gunmen to resort to violence.

Houthis set fire to prison cells and fired rounds of live bullets, killing at least three prisoners and injuring 20 others.

This came at a time Houthis amped up violence practiced against residents in areas they control. Since the break of war, Houthi militiamen are held accountable to countless looting of bank funds and imposing restrictions on commercial companies.

Reports also warned against the Iran-backed coup carrying out plans on making sales on large properties belonging to the former ruling party, the General People’s Congress, in Hodeidah and Taiz.

Houthi militias are planning to transfer hundreds of inmates on Sunday from the central prison to unknown locations, likely training camps after which they will recruit them to fight among the insurgency’s ranks, relatives of prisoners and security sources in Hodeidah told Asharq al-Awsat.

Sources said Houthis fired randomly at the prisoners, set fire to jail cells, and used gas bombs in an effort to quell the uprising of prisoners who refused to leave the prison.

A squad of Houthi militiamen led by Abu Ali al-Kahlani killed three prisoners and wounded 20 others, sources added.

Houthi ranks have been diminishing over battles with government forces and allies—pushing militias to recruit and release inmates from Houthi-run prisons in Sana'a, Ibb, Dhamar,and Hajjah. According to security sources, Houthis managed to recruit more young people, adolescents and civilian staff.

Sources said that hundreds of Hodeidah prisoners who refused to fight alongside Houthi ranks face torture and coercion—while relatives urge international humanitarian organizations to intervene to stop Houthi crimes against their imprisoned relatives.

Houthi militiamen refused to allow the family visits to prisoners and refused to allow food and water to enter jail cells, sources said.

“They will not eat or drink anything until they bow down to carry out what is required of them,” inmate relatives cited Houthi prison guards as saying.

The central prison in Hodeidah, nestled south of the city, holds more than 700 prisoners.

Many fear that the group will take up prisoners as human shields if they insist on refusing to comply with the group's desire for their recruitment.

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Arab World

Satellite Images Appear to Show Attempts to Dispose of Bodies After RSF Seized Sudan’s el-Fasher

This satellite image from Vantor shows a smoke from a fire at the Saudi hospital in el-Fasher, Sudan, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (©2025 Vantor via AP)
This satellite image from Vantor shows a smoke from a fire at the Saudi hospital in el-Fasher, Sudan, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (©2025 Vantor via AP)
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Satellite Images Appear to Show Attempts to Dispose of Bodies After RSF Seized Sudan’s el-Fasher

This satellite image from Vantor shows a smoke from a fire at the Saudi hospital in el-Fasher, Sudan, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (©2025 Vantor via AP)
This satellite image from Vantor shows a smoke from a fire at the Saudi hospital in el-Fasher, Sudan, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (©2025 Vantor via AP)

New satellite images analyzed Friday appear to show further efforts by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to dispose of corpses after they seized and rampaged through the city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Images by the Colorado-based firm Vantor show a fire at the Saudi hospital in el-Fasher on Thursday near a collection of white objects seen days earlier in other Vantor photos.

The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab described the images as showing the “burning of objects that may be consistent with bodies.”

“The practice of burning bodies is not consistent with Islamic burial practices,” the Yale lab said in its report. “The apparent immolation of objects that may be consistent with human remains complicates any future effort to count the number of people killed since the fall of el-Fasher and to identify and return the remains to family members.”

The Associated Press separately accessed the Vantor images and identified objects corresponding to the Yale lab’s report, including the fire and the white objects. Such objects in other imagery from el-Fasher appear to correspond to dead bodies, showing the scale of the killings in the city.

Earlier satellite images of el-Fasher appear to show mass graves being dug and later covered at two sites in the city, one at a mosque just north of the Saudi hospital where some 460 people reportedly had been killed and another by a former children’s hospital that the RSF had been using as a prison.

The RSF has denied killing anyone at the Saudi hospital.

However, testimonies from those fleeing el-Fasher, online videos and satellite images offer an apocalyptic vision of the attack.

Another satellite image appeared to show the RSF likely blocking an exit to el-Fasher to the west. A new berm had been added to the site, the Yale lab said.

Drones reportedly intercepted

Meanwhile, the Sudanese army intercepted drones fired overnight by its rival paramilitary group on two cities in Sudan's northeast, a military official said Friday.

The army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the matter, said 15 drones targeted Atbara, a city north of the capital, in River Nile province. He confirmed that strikes caused no casualties. Local media reports said residents heard explosions.

The official added that ground defenses intercepted a smaller-scale drone attack that also targeted Omdruman, the sister city of the capital Khartoum.

The RSF drone strikes come a day after the group announced that it has agreed to a humanitarian truce proposed by a US-led mediator group known as the Quad.

A Sudanese military official told the AP on Thursday that the army welcomes the Quad’s proposal but will only agree to a truce when the RSF completely withdraws from civilian areas and give up weapons per previous peace proposals.

US-led plan for a truce

The war between the RSF and the military began in 2023, when tensions erupted between the two former allies that were meant to oversee a democratic transition after a 2019 uprising.

The fighting has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the WHO, and displaced 12 million. However, aid groups say the true death toll could be many times higher. Over 24 million people are also facing acute food insecurity, according to the World Food Program.

The US-led plan for a truce would start with a three-month humanitarian truce followed by a nine-month political process, said Massad Boulos, a US adviser for African affairs, earlier this week.

Also Friday, the UN’s top human rights body announced it will hold an emergency special session on Sudan on Nov. 14 over recent bloodshed and other violence against civilians in and around the Darfur city of el-Fasher.

The call for the special session by the Human Rights Council in Geneva was led by Britain, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Norway, and has drawn support from two dozen council members in the 47-member-country rights body so far.

Limited aid delivery The RSF’s announcement that it agreed to the truce comes more than a week after the group seized el-Fasher which had been under siege for over 18 months. It was also the last Sudanese military stronghold in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

UNICEF said Thursday that more than 81,000 people have been displaced from el-Fasher since Oct. 26, with rising needs for shelter, food, water and medical care but limited aid delivery.

The UN children agency's report said it identified more than 850 children with acute malnutrition who are now receiving treatment. It added that violence, sexual assaults and looting of health facilities remain rampant across North Darfur, with women and children being the most vulnerable.

Arab World

Report: Azerbaijan Will Only Send Peacekeepers to Gaza if Fighting Stops Completely

A Palestinian child holds a piece of wood with the rubble of destroyed buildings in the background, during sunset, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, November 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A Palestinian child holds a piece of wood with the rubble of destroyed buildings in the background, during sunset, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, November 6, 2025. (Reuters)
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Report: Azerbaijan Will Only Send Peacekeepers to Gaza if Fighting Stops Completely

A Palestinian child holds a piece of wood with the rubble of destroyed buildings in the background, during sunset, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, November 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A Palestinian child holds a piece of wood with the rubble of destroyed buildings in the background, during sunset, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, November 6, 2025. (Reuters)

Azerbaijan does not plan to send peacekeepers to Gaza unless there is a complete halt to fighting there between Israel and Hamas, an Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry source told Reuters on Friday.

As part of President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza, the US has been speaking to Azerbaijan, Indonesia, the UAE, Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye about possible contributions from those countries to an International Stabilization Force (ISF) of around 20,000 troops.

"We do not want to put our troops in danger. This can only happen if military action is completely stopped," the Azerbaijani source said.

The source noted that any such decision would have to be approved by parliament. The head of the parliamentary security committee told Reuters that it had not yet received any draft bill on the matter.

A US-drafted resolution at the United Nations would authorize the ISF to "use all necessary measures" - meaning force, if necessary - to carry out its mandate to stabilize security in Gaza.

Hamas has not said whether it will agree to disarm and demilitarize Gaza, something it has previously rejected.

Arab World

UN Issues 'Stark' Warning on Sudan's Kordofan

Displaced Sudanese who fled el-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), arrive in the town of Tawila war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region on October 28, 2025. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese who fled el-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), arrive in the town of Tawila war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region on October 28, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Issues 'Stark' Warning on Sudan's Kordofan

Displaced Sudanese who fled el-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), arrive in the town of Tawila war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region on October 28, 2025. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese who fled el-Fasher after the city fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), arrive in the town of Tawila war-torn Sudan's western Darfur region on October 28, 2025. (AFP)

The United Nations issued a "stark warning" Friday over preparations for intensified fighting in Sudan's Kordofan region, as it made a new call for an end to the violence.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been locked in conflict with Sudan's regular army since April 2023, announced on Thursday that they had agreed to a humanitarian truce proposal made by mediators.

Following the RSF capture of el-Fasher in late October of the army's last major stronghold in the western Darfur region, the paramilitaries appear to be shifting their focus eastward towards Khartoum and oil-rich Kordofan.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said traumatized and trapped civilians were being prevented from leaving el-Fasher.

"I fear that the abominable atrocities such as summary executions, rape and ethnically motivated violence are continuing within the city," he said in a statement.

And for those who do manage to escape, the exit routes have been the scenes of "unimaginable cruelty", he added.

"At the same time, I issue a stark warning about events unfolding in Kordofan," said Turk.

"Since the capture of el-Fasher, the civilian casualties, destruction and mass displacement there have been mounting. There is no sign of de-escalation.

"To the contrary, developments on the ground indicate clear preparations for intensified hostilities, with everything that implies for its long-suffering people."

The RSF have been accused of mass killings, looting and sexual violence in el-Fasher.

Turk said that given the "cataclysmic violence" in the city, countries were on notice that without quick and decisive action, "there will be more of the carnage and atrocities that we have already witnessed".

He said the provision of military support to sustain parties committing serious violations must stop.

"I repeat my plea for an immediate end to the violence both in Darfur and Kordofan. Bold and urgent action is required by the international community," said Turk.

The fall of el-Fasher gave paramilitaries control over all five state capitals in Darfur, raising fears that Sudan would effectively be partitioned along an east-west axis.