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The Memory of Fear in Abyan
During the ongoing conflict in Yemen, the site of the 7 October Military Factory—located between the areas of Hisn Atiyah and Al-Ruwa on the outskirts of Abyan Governorate in southern Yemen—was transformed into an unofficial and unlawful place of detention, not subject to any form of judicial oversight. Armed formations affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council, supported by the United Arab Emirates, detained dozens of civilians there. Over the years, the site became one of the most dangerous unofficial detention centers in Abyan Governorate, and possibly in Yemen as a whole.
Despite successive changes in control over the site and alterations to its names and signage, the pattern of violations committed there remained unchanged. At every stage, the site was used to detain civilians outside the framework of the law, and grave violations were perpetrated within it, including arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearance, and, at times, death under torture.
In addition to a series of military checkpoints and three main gates separating the interior from the exterior, the 7 October center includes a large yard scattered with old armored vehicles, personnel carriers, deteriorated tanks, and rocket launchers that have been abandoned for many years. The site also contains old two-story buildings, some resembling schools, with small internal courtyards, while others are believed to have served as offices or soldiers’ housing. Underground, there are abandoned storage facilities and workshops that, over time, were converted into dark spaces, whose names have become associated with painful testimonies of torture and ill-treatment.
The center has no clear records or official registers, and the fate of dozens of victims remains unknown to this day. Dozens of families in Abyan Governorate continue to search for their relatives who were detained at this site at different times and never returned, amid recurring reports of unidentified bodies being found, suspected to belong to individuals who died under torture inside this center.
The 7 October detention center in Abyan Governorate represents a stark example of unofficial places of detention in Yemen—sites used to pursue reprisals, silence voices, detain individuals without legal basis, and perpetrate torture and other forms of ill-treatment, entirely outside any form of judicial oversight.
Mwatana for Human Rights documented the detention of 53 victims at the unofficial 7 October detention center. Data documented by Mwatana indicate that 41 detainees were subjected to various forms of physical and psychological torture. Mwatana also documented that 32 detainees were subjected to enforced disappearance for prolonged periods, with some remaining of unknown fate at the time of drafting this blog.
Mwatana for Human Rights calls for the immediate closure of the unofficial 7 October detention center; an end to all forms of detention outside the framework of the law; the subjection of all prisons and places of detention to the authority of the Public Prosecution and the judiciary; the accountability of those in charge of the center and those involved in committing violations therein; the disclosure of the fate of those forcibly disappeared; the provision of justice and reparations to victims; and guarantees of non-recurrence of such violations.
