Yemen: Torture in rebel-controlled and government-controlled areas

December 11, 2018

Since the start of the civil war in Yemen, more than 18,000 people are believed to have been locked up by the Houthi fighters. Many of them have been tortured. But rights groups say that torture also takes place in prisons run by the Yemeni government and its Gulf allies, including the United Arab Emirates.

An article in the Independent (UK) describes the experiences of some of those tortured. One of them is Farouk Baakar, a Yemeni medic at al-Rashid hospital in north Yemen. Baakar was arrested by seven militiamen in 2016 after treating a man who had been tortured and shot by the Houthis. He was held for 18 months in Houthi-controlled prisons. In a makeshift prison in the city of Hodeidah, “he was stripped, whipped and his nails and hair were pulled out. He was later splashed with melted plastic, beaten and chained to a ceiling by his wrists for 50 days until his captors thought he was dead.”