Human Rights Network Documents 18,000 Houthi Abuses in Yemen’s Dhamar

A home destroyed by the Houthis in Yemen's Dhamar. (Social media)
A home destroyed by the Houthis in Yemen's Dhamar. (Social media)
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Human Rights Network Documents 18,000 Houthi Abuses in Yemen’s Dhamar

A home destroyed by the Houthis in Yemen's Dhamar. (Social media)
A home destroyed by the Houthis in Yemen's Dhamar. (Social media)

A Yemeni human rights report revealed on Tuesday that the Iran-backed Houthi militias have committed over 18,000 violations against civilians in the Dhamar governorate during seven years.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said that from December 1, 2014 to October 30, 2021, it documented 18,413 grave Houthi violations ranging from killings, physical assaults, kidnappings, raids, looting of public and private funds and other crimes.

Dhamar is located 100 kilometers south of the Houthi-held capital Sanaa.

The Network stated that during the past seven years, the Houthis committed 474 extrajudicial killings and injured 218 people in the governorate.

It documented 19 assassinations, 1,183 kidnappings, 72 enforced disappearances, 614 arbitrary arrests of travelers, 315 threats and exclusion from public office, nine cases of rape and forced prostitution, 274 cases of physical and psychological torture and 105 physical assaults of civilians.

It accused the militias of carrying out 48 bombings that affected houses, shops and places of worship, in addition to carrying out 1,459 raids and looting and burning of homes, 69 cases of confiscation and looting of private and public property, and 80 cases of appropriation of private lands and sale of state property.

In addition, the report documented 237 Houthi attacks on places of worship and educational and health facilities, and 24 cases of looting of party headquarters and charities.

“The Houthi militias forced more than 2,143 families to flee and they recruited 5,481 child soldiers in Dhamar, mainly orphans,” the Network report revealed, adding that the mentioned violations do not represent all the crimes that were committed by the Houthis in Dhamar.



New Gaza Aid Plans Would Increase Children’s Suffering, UNICEF Says 

Palestinian boys salvage bread from a makeshift bakery hit in Israeli strikes at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 8, 2025. (AFP)
Palestinian boys salvage bread from a makeshift bakery hit in Israeli strikes at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 8, 2025. (AFP)
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New Gaza Aid Plans Would Increase Children’s Suffering, UNICEF Says 

Palestinian boys salvage bread from a makeshift bakery hit in Israeli strikes at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 8, 2025. (AFP)
Palestinian boys salvage bread from a makeshift bakery hit in Israeli strikes at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 8, 2025. (AFP)

The United Nations Children's Fund on Friday criticized emerging plans to take over distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza on Thursday floated by both Israel and the United States, saying that they would increase suffering for children and families.

The US State Department earlier floated a solution that would allow delivery of food aid to Gaza was "steps away" and an announcement was coming shortly.

A proposal is circulating among the aid community for a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that would distribute food from four "Secure Distribution Sites", resembling plans announced by Israel earlier this week, which drew criticism that it would effectively worsen displacement among the Gaza population.

"It appears the design of a plan presented by Israel to the humanitarian community will increase ongoing suffering of children and families in the Gaza Strip," said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.

Elder said his remarks also applied to the new foundation which he understood to be part of the same broad plan.

The aid community has already rejected any plans that would give occupying power Israel a role in distributing aid in Gaza.

However, the Foundation document said the sites would be "neutral" and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Friday that Israel would not be involved in handing out aid.

Still, Elder said that the use of such hubs, which the foundation says will initially serve 300,000 people each, would create risks for children and families as they go to retrieve aid and would drive further displacement.

"The use of humanitarian aid as a bait to force displacement, especially from the north to the south will create this impossible choice: a choice between displacement and death," said Elder, who has been on several missions to Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began 19 months ago.

"It appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic."

He called instead for Israel to lift a more than two-month-long blockade on aid entries into the enclave, which is stoking widespread hunger and raising concerns about a spike in malnutrition-related deaths.

"There is a simple alternative, lift the blockade, let humanitarian aid in to save lives," he said.