Houthis starve Hodeidah prisoners after riot

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have stopped giving food and water to captives held in Hodeidah’s central prison after they resisted an attempt to send them to fight against the government.

The rebels killed three prisoners and injured five others on Thursday evening when they opened fire to quell a riot that broke out after lorries arrived to take the prisoners to the front lines.

One bullet hit a gas pipeline, starting a fire in the prison.

Since then, the rebels have stopped giving the prisoners food and water and have also stopped their relatives from visiting them to deliver supplies, said Abdulrahman Al Mashra’ee, the head of the Sons of Hodeidah, a group of prominent citizens.

Mr Al Mashra’ee said he had received text messages from prisoners saying that the Houthis had cut off the electricity supply to the prison and removed the solar panels that provide back-up power and light.

Abdulwahab Shoubail, a media activist, said the Houthis had taken away prisoners’ mobile phones.

“During the last couple of days we kept trying to call

some prisoners in the central prison, but all their cellphones were off. Later on, we were informed that the Houthi militia has banned using cellphones in the prison and looted all the cellphones that were with the prisoners,” Mr Shoubail told The National.

The Houthis’ punishment of the prisoners comes as the Iran-backed rebels step up forced recruitment of civilians to replenish their ranks after heavy battlefield losses against pro-government forces backed by the Arab Coalition. In April, the Houthis ordered their officials in Sanaa, the rebel-held capital, to enlist the civic employees as fighters. In Hodeidah, the rebels ordered the local university to enlist undergraduate students.

In the past two months, the Houthis have launched campaigns to conscript civilians in Sanaa, Ibb, Amran, Mahweet and Hodeidah provinces. On June 17, rebels in the capital killed Wadeel Fadhel, 25, the son of an anti-trafficking campaigner, because he refused to fight for them.

On Friday, the Houthis staged a rally in Sanaa to press residents of the capital to send their sons to the front lines.