On Tuesday, August 28, 2018, the Houthi militia in Dhamar governorate kidnapped more than 80 citizens of a village in the directorate of Jahran in Dhamar governorate after it was severely besieged since last Sunday, August 26, following confrontations with the people of the area that resulted in the death of one person and wounding of number of Houthis.

Local sources in the Directorate of Jahran told the website of al-islah.net that the Houthi militias surrounded the village of al-Kharbah in the Directorate of Jahran north of Dhamar governorate, and kidnapped dozens of area residents from inside the houses located on the outskirts of the town and also those who were outside, before the storm into the village and its homes, which were searched provocatively by Houthi militias elements.

The sources said that the number of the abductees from the village of al-Kharbah is more than 80 people, including the elderly and young people. These kidnappings were carried out by a campaign consisting of about 30 patrols, two armored vehicles and dozens of Houthi gunmen in Dhamar governorate on Sunday evening with the aim of blockade the village, which refused to surrender to Houthi gunmen who wanted to arrest some village elders, claiming that they were wanted by the security forces, which was the cause of broken out clashes with Houthis, and this clash resulted in killing one Houthi ganman and wounded eight others, including a security commander of the militias, and injured one of the villagers.

The Homeland Renaissance Organization in Dhamar governorate monitored 3,306 cases of human rights violations committed by Houthi militias in the governorate in 2017 only, while violations since the beginning of the current year 2018 exceeded 600 violations, most of which were kidnappings.

Massive numbers and mass kidnappings

If this is only one operation in which 80 citizens were abducted by the Houthi militias, we will have huge numbers of abductees who have been abducted by the Houthi militias in Dhamar governorate since they controlled the governorate in October 2014, where monitoring groups couldn't record all violations in different districts of the governorate.

In February 2017, the Houthi militias abducted more than 120 residents of the Directorate of Otoma, displaced more than 500 families from the Directorate, blew up many houses and destroyed houses of citizens, which happens in other areas of the governorate that are not under the control of the Houthi supervisor.

According to human rights sources told al-islah.net website, that there are large numbers of abductees, there were conflicting reports about the abductee's numbers between local human right organizations, but there are likely to be more than 1,100 abductees still kidnapped until today in detention camps controlled by the Houthi militias. These detention camps belonged to the security authorities and the political security apparatus and other prisons hidden in the homes of opponents of the coup raped by the Houthis, including dozens of people who were forcibly hidden and even isolated from their families who could not know where they were hidden. Most of them were subjected to daily torture and violations, as well as their poor living and health conditions.

While the number of those arrested by the Houthi militias since their control of the governorate reached to more than 3,250 abductees were distributed to several prisons belonging to the authorities and secret prisons of the militias run by Houthi supervisors, who have been trained by elements of Hezbollah.

Militias, kidnapping points and abuses

For the Houthi militias, Dhamar is a breeding ground for kidnaping more citizens, especially in the security checkpoints widely dispersed between Dhamar and al-Baida governorates, where travelers are subjected to increasing and ongoing violations. Houthi militias have abducted hundreds of sons of Dhamar and other governorates from these checkpoints. These abductees were transferred to the prisons of Dhamar city, including the Criminal Investigation Prison, where the Houthi militias investigate with the abductees and torture them and then redistribute them to prisons. The most important of these prisons is the mental sanatorium in the central prison in Dhamar crowded with detainees. Abductees released in earlier times reported that hundreds of abductees were being gathered into three rooms for mentally handicapped people, with scarcity of toilets, lack of food and contaminated water, and they were subjected to harsh treatment, forced to perform the Houthi scream, or they are being thrown into solitary cells.

Among the prisoners there were a large proportion of children and young people abducted by Houthi militias from the security checkpoints and placed them among prisoners, in clear violation of the rights of the children and putting them at risk, and cruel treatment by militia elements, who do not care children's rights.

In the Community College located on the road leading to Sana'a, hundreds of abductees, mostly from Taiz governorate, live in difficult conditions, in addition to the Shannah prison in the city of Maabr, which is one of the worst prisons of the militia in the governorate, whether in terms of living conditions or in terms of the abductees who are subjected to violations, cruel treatments and torture.

Hundreds of abductees are distributed to police stations in Dhamar city and security departments in a number of governorate directorates. These police stations are supervised directly by Houthi supervisors, where the kidnappings that do not stop became the talk of the citizens.

However, the Political Security Prison is the worst, where this prison is considered a cemetery for the abductees. The prison contains dozens of people who are being subjected to brutal torture, enforced disappearances and denial of visits. The majority of the abductees in this prison are political, media and human rights activists, whom the Houthi militias regard as a threat. According to sources in the city of Dhamar, dozens of abductees from the sons of other governorates are deported weekly to their governorates, where they are received by Houthi militias there, after the Houthi militias in Dhamar had kidnapped them at their checkpoints, especially the governorates of Amran, Sanaa, Mahweet, Hajja and Ib.

A source of sustenance for the supervisors

Houthis leaders take most of the detainees, who are being held from their first moments of detention as a source of sustenance, where they force the families of the detainees to pay sums of up to 20,000 Riyals in exchange for leaving them. However, this amount is doubled if they reject to pay and then detainees are transferred to other prisons to become the sum of 50 to 100 thousand Riyals, in addition to forcing their families to make pledges and provide trade guarantees not to travel to Marib or criticize militias in the councils or social networking sites, where abductees reported, who were released, that they paid large amounts for their release, and Houthi leaders asked the detainees to be that in secret, while in public they were signing on the guarantees.

While the Houthi militias are confiscating the properties of the abductees, some of whom say they have not received any of their properties looted by the Houthis. Some of these properties are worth large sums, while there are vehicles belonging to abductees who are used by the Houthis during their detention, these vehicles are released only by mediation or a large fine.