Ehab Faisal… The Endless Years of Absence
In the early hours of Wednesday, November 16, 2016, a military force from the "Transport Brigade" raided the "Dar Hotel" building in the Dar Saad district of Aden. The soldiers were wearing military uniforms and were driving several vehicles belonging to the brigade, which was at that time under the internationally recognized government. During the raid, Ehab Faisal Ali Nasr Radman, a 24-year-old daily laborer, was arrested and taken to the brigade's camp in Dar Saad.
In the camp, Ehab was subjected to severe mistreatment and torture, according to statements from his family, which included beatings on the hands and feet and burns to various parts of his body, including sensitive areas. After about two months, his family was allowed to visit him. That brief visit was the last proof that he was still alive. He was later transferred from the Dar Saad prison to an unknown location, and since then, security authorities have denied having any information about him, leaving his fate unknown to this day.
His father, Faisal Radman, recounts that the Dar Saad camp was under the internationally recognized government, and with the escalation of armed confrontations between those forces and the Southern Transitional Council(STC), camp officials feared the site might be bombed. According to what the family learned, Ehab was taken out of his cell and placed inside an armored vehicle near the camp, a move his father considered an attempt to dispose of him in the event the site was targeted in an airstrike. The bombing never occurred, but Ehab was then moved to an unknown location, and since that moment, there has been no news about him.
The family began a strenuous search between official and unofficial prisons. They visited the Dar Saad prison, the Transport Brigade camp, Bir Ahmad, and other detention sites, but all authorities denied having him in custody. On one occasion, the director of criminal investigations in the governorate called a security official in Dar Saad in front of Ehab's father, who confirmed that Ehab was in their custody, only to later retract his statement minutes later, claiming it was a mistake. Hope would arise for a moment, then suddenly be snatched away.
The family filed notes and complaints to the former security director of Aden, and to the Attorney General, who referred the complaint to the head of the Appeal Prosecution, from there to the military prosecution. However, none of these entities took any real action to uncover his fate, and the case remained unresolved.
During the years of searching, Ehab's mother passed away while he was still forcibly missing. Even in her last moments, she dreamed of seeing him alive and embracing him once more, before leaving this world with her heart hung on an unfulfilled hope.
In March 2021, the family received a call from the Dar Saad police requesting that Ehab's father come to identify bodies found buried in the yard of the Transport Brigade commander. The father went, burdened with fear and hope, examined the corpses one by one, but informed the police that his son's body was not among them. This was not the end of their suffering, but another chapter of waiting.
Since November 2016 until today, many long years have passed since the enforced disappearance of Ehab Faisal without any charges, or any judicial proceedings, or enabling his family to know his whereabouts. His fate remains unknown, within a broader context of enforced disappearances that have occurred in Aden and other areas during the years of conflict.
The internationally recognized government must reveal the fate of Ehab Faisal and all those forcibly disappeared, release those held arbitrarily, work to end the crime of enforced disappearance that still affects hundreds of victims in Aden and other regions, and open independent and transparent investigations to identify those involved in the crimes of enforced disappearance and hold them accountable, as well as provide redress for the victims and their families and compensate them for their suffering.
