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At least 68 African migrants have been killed and 47 others critically injured after a US airstrike hit a detention center in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled Saada province, according to the Houthi-run Al Masirah TV channel.
Graphic footage broadcast by Al Masirah showed bodies buried under the rubble of a destroyed building. The US military has not yet commented on the strike.
The attack came just hours after US Central Command (Centcom) announced that American forces had carried out more than 800 strikes against Houthi targets since March 15, following former President Donald Trump’s order to intensify operations. Centcom claimed the strikes had killed “hundreds of Houthi fighters and leaders,” but civilian casualties are increasingly being reported by Houthi authorities.
The detention center, reportedly housing 115 African migrants—mostly from Ethiopia and Somalia—was struck four times around 5:00 a.m. local time on Monday. Video footage captured cries of wounded survivors, with one injured man calling out “My mother” in Amharic, Ethiopia’s official language.
At a local hospital, a survivor told reporters: “The strike hit us while we were sleeping, that’s it.”
The Houthi-run Interior Ministry condemned the bombing as a “war crime,” while the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) expressed sorrow and called for the protection of civilians under international law.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed that Yemen Red Crescent teams evacuated the wounded and managed the dead. It said the facility was under local Houthi authority and had previously been visited to monitor detention conditions.
This is not the first time tragedy has struck the area. In 2022, a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a pre-trial detention center nearby killed at least 66 people.
Al Masirah also reported eight additional deaths from US airstrikes overnight in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
Centcom has limited details on its operations to “preserve operational security,” but insisted strikes are aimed at degrading Houthi capabilities after months of attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Since late 2023, the Houthis have targeted dozens of vessels, claiming to act in support of Palestinians amid the Israel-Gaza war, although many of their targets have had no direct links to Israel.
Despite Yemen’s prolonged conflict, desperate migrants from the Horn of Africa continue to arrive, hoping to cross into Saudi Arabia in search of work. Many end up detained under dire conditions, facing exploitation and violence in a country shattered by over 11 years of civil war.
The UN estimates that nearly 60,900 migrants have arrived in Yemen so far in 2024, most with no support and trapped in detention centers like the one destroyed in Saada. Rights groups warn that these facilities are overcrowded, unsanitary, and rife with abuse.
Earlier this month, US strikes on the Ras Isa oil terminal on Yemen’s Red Sea coast reportedly killed at least 74 civilians. Centcom defended the operation, saying it targeted key Houthi revenue streams and would impair their ability to fund operations.
Following his return to office, Trump redesignated the Houthis as a “Foreign Terrorist Organization,” reversing a move by the Biden administration, which had lifted the label to ease humanitarian efforts.
Yemen’s war, which escalated in 2015 when the Houthis seized large parts of the country, has left more than 150,000 people dead, displaced 4.8 million, and left half the population—19.5 million—dependent on aid, according to humanitarian organizations.
As airstrikes continue and civilian casualties mount, the crisis shows no sign of abating—raising urgent questions about accountability and the human cost of this intensifying conflict.
