Iran-backd Houthis commit 66 cases of forced displacement in Yemen

The National Committee for Investigating Governmental Allegations of Human Rights Violations announced that the Iran-backd Houthis are responsible for committing 66 cases of collective and individual forced displacement in various areas of Yemen.

The committee's report, which was recently submitted to the President of the Presidential Council, Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, referred to the incident of forced displacement of the residents of the villages of Al-Maqatira, Al-Muthafi, Al-Sira, and Al-Hud in the Aslou Directorate of Taiz Governorate (southwest of Yemen) on September 30, 2016.

The investigations conducted by the committee, along with the testimonies of witnesses and victims, as well as the records kept by the committee for the victims, most of whom are women and children, have indicated that the Houthis responsible for these violations, specifically Hamoud Al-Sheiba, the "commander of the Aslou front," and their leadership in Taiz Governorate, led by Abdullah Yahya Al-Hakim, also known as Abu Ali Al-Hakim, who was appointed by the Houthis as the commander of the fourth military region during the period 2015-2017 and currently serves as the head of the Military Intelligence Agency.

The committee's report covers the period from August 1, 2022, to the end of July 2023.

The committee had previously documented 97 cases of forced displacement committed by the Houthis from July 1, 2021, to July 31, 2022.

Forced displacement violates the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, as well as the United Nations Convention on the Prevention of Genocide. International humanitarian law defines forced displacement as "the forcible and illegal eviction of a group of individuals and populations from the land they reside on," and it is a practice associated with ethnic cleansing and coercive measures aimed at evacuating specific lands for alternative elites or a certain group.

The number of families displaced from the villages of Al-Maqatira, Al-Muthafi, Al-Sira, and Al-Hud reached 150 families, as the Houthi militants occupied the homes of the displaced residents, looted a large number of them, and tampered with their contents after displacing the inhabitants and forcing them to leave to different areas in the directorates of Taiz, Lahj, and Ibb.

The incident in the Aslou Directorate involved the Houthis storming the directorate and entering the homes of the residents in the villages of Al-Maqatira, Al-Muthafi, Al-Sira, and Al-Hud, threatening the residents, including women, children, and men, and demanding them to leave their homes. When the residents, especially women, refused to leave, the Houthis threatened them with weapons, brandishing them over their heads and firing shots into the air.

The committee's report indicated that a large number of residents were forced to leave on foot without being allowed to take any of their belongings and possessions. The remaining residents who refused to leave were besieged by Houthis the following day and were demanded to leave all the villages on the pretext that they were "ISIS members." Anyone who refused to leave was subjected to assault, beaten with weapon butts, and forcibly expelled.