Yemeni human rights activists accused Iran-backed Houthis of digging mass graves for dozens of civilians who had died under torture in militia prisons.
Defending themselves, Houthis said the bodies being buried belong to unidentified persons left in hospital morgues in areas under coup control.
A few days ago, Houthis admitted to burying 35 bodies in a mass grave in Dhamar Governorate, located 100 km south of Sanaa. This was a part of the group’s plan to bury more than 700 bodies over different stages in the governorates of Hodeidah, Sanaa, and Dhamar.
While Houthis are believed to empty morgues at hospitals to make room for the bodies of militants who died in battle, activists accused them of seeking to conceal the truth about brutal crimes committed against detainees.
Dozens of those detained in Houthi prisons are dying under gruesome torture, Yemeni activists said.
The Houthi-styled state news agency in Sanaa announced that the group has launched the fourth phase of a plan to bury unidentified corpses stored in hospital morgue freezers in Dhamar city.
Houthis are planning to put in the ground 715 corpses preserved in morgues at hospitals in areas under their control.
Coup media also reported on the fourth stage soon expanding to reach governorates and cities other than Dahmar.
Since the start of 2020, Houthis have managed to entomb 232 bodies over three stages carried out in Sanaa, Hodeidah, and Dahmar.
On March 9, coinciding with the outbreak of the coronavirus, Houthis launched the first phase of burying unidentified bodies.
Undersecretary of Human Rights Ministry Majed Fadael, commenting on the topic, did not rule out that those bodies belonged to detainees who died under torture in Houthi prisons.
“These bodies belong to kidnapped civilians who have been killed under torture and mutilated to the point where it is difficult to identify them, so the inability to identify them is the pretext for burying them," Fadael said.
