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Mwatana Launches Interactive Map of Enforced Disappearances in Yemen to Remember Victims and Support Their Families
Mwatana for Human Rights stated in a statement issued in conjunction with the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, observed annually on August 30, that the launch of the interactive map of enforced disappearances in Yemen, “Suspended Fates,” as an additional tool for addressing the crime of enforced disappearance in Yemen, forms part of its ongoing efforts to build a national human rights memory and provide an open space dedicated to one of the most tragic and enduring crimes in Yemen’s modern history. The map serves as a digital memorial preserving the names and stories of victims of enforced disappearance throughout the different phases of Yemen’s conflict; reaffirming recognition of the victims and the prolonged suffering of their families; and providing an advocacy platform for truth, justice, and redress. It also serves to remind all parties of their responsibility to establish the fate of those subjected to enforced disappearance, enable families to know the truth, ensure accountability and reparation, and guarantee non-recurrence.
Mwatana emphasized that its work to document data on cases of enforced disappearance, whether committed during the ongoing conflict or during previous cycles of political conflict, and to present them as indicators and data points on the interactive map, aims to provide a visual representation of the reality of enforced disappearances in Yemen. This information offers researchers, journalists, human rights defenders, and policymakers essential data and indicators that contribute to a deeper understanding of enforced disappearance in Yemen and a greater awareness of its gravity. Its consequences do not end with the disappearance of the victim; rather, its psychological, social, economic, and legal repercussions continue and extend to the victim’s family and community. Each point on the interactive map represents the story of a person deprived of their liberty whose fate has been concealed, and the story of a family that continues to struggle and wait for answers while holding firmly to its right to know the truth and obtain justice and redress.
Radhya Al-Mutawakel, Chairperson of Mwatana for Human Rights, said: “Alongside our continued documentation of cases, conducting in-depth research and studies, providing legal support to victims and their families, advocacy and awareness-raising, publishing reports, studies, blogs, and stories, and building capacities, Mwatana is launching this interactive map as one of the avenues through which we reaffirm our steadfast commitment to supporting the thousands of families of victims of enforced disappearance in Yemen. These families have struggled for months, years, and even decades without giving up, seeking to learn the fate of their loved ones. This reaffirms that the passage of months, years, and decades does not extinguish their right to know the truth, obtain redress, and receive reparation, and that establishing the fate of victims and holding those responsible for these crimes accountable is a duty that cannot be postponed.”
Al-Mutawakel added: “Preserving memory is not merely an act of documentation; it is also one of the fundamental guarantees against the recurrence of violations in the present and future. Societies that fail to confront their past and uncover the truth about grave violations remain more vulnerable to reproducing them. Therefore, documenting enforced disappearances, uncovering the truth, establishing the fate of victims, acknowledging the suffering of their families, and supporting their struggle are necessary steps toward building a peace grounded in justice, rather than in forgetting and disregard.”
Through its interactive map of enforced disappearances in Yemen, Mwatana provides, in addition to the names and information of victims and the places where they disappeared, details and circumstances surrounding individual cases. One of the map’s main sections provides background on the historical and political contexts in which enforced disappearances were committed. This enables users to understand the historical evolution of these crimes, identify their patterns, and highlight the actors responsible for them during different periods—from the September 26 and October 14 revolutions, and successive cycles of struggle for power in northern and southern Yemen, to the Central Regions wars, the January 13, 1986 events, the period following Yemeni unification, the 1994 Summer War, the war on terrorism, the six Saada wars, the peaceful Southern Movement, the popular protests of 2011, and the transitional period, culminating in the broader, longest-running armed conflict that has continued since 2014.
These represent some of the most significant events accompanied by grave human rights violations, including enforced disappearances that affected thousands of people from diverse political and social backgrounds and across different regions.
The interactive map of enforced disappearances in Yemen demonstrates how enforced disappearance has accompanied successive cycles of conflict in Yemen and how it has been perpetrated by authorities, security and military agencies, multiple armed actors, and political groups with diverse political and ideological orientations. It also illustrates how these crimes were passed down from one period to another and how successive actors have colluded in failing to address them, despite the transfer of power among different parties.
The map further demonstrates that enforced disappearance in Yemen was not a phenomenon confined to a particular historical period or attributable to a single party involved in the country’s cycles of conflict. Rather, it represented a recurring pattern of violations. It also shows that the victims did not belong to a single group; they included politicians, military personnel, journalists, academics, human rights activists and defenders, students, workers, and ordinary civilians who found themselves caught at the heart of conflicts or on their margins.
Mwatana said that the types of data presented through the interactive map of enforced disappearances in Yemen are based on a methodology tailored to the nature of the crime of enforced disappearance. Mwatana developed the map’s database based on two main mechanisms:
First Mechanism: Victims and Cases of Enforced Disappearance During Decades of Yemen’s Political Conflict Cycles
The organization reviewed and analyzed a wide range of historical documents, research, studies, human rights and media reports, press materials, records, documents, and other open sources in order to identify victims of enforced disappearance associated with previous cycles of conflict that predated the establishment of Mwatana and its engagement in field documentation. The information obtained from these sources was subjected, whenever possible, to review, verification, and cross-checking against other sources, with the aim of enhancing data accuracy and expanding the scope of historical documentation of the crime in Yemen.
Accordingly, the data presented on cases and victims from those periods reflects the information available in open historical sources. Such data is basic and general, extremely limited, and concerns cases that have not been documented and verified in accordance with Mwatana’s methodology. The data is therefore subject to addition and amendment.
As of August 2026, Mwatana had included in the map general information on 1327 cases of enforced disappearance committed during successive cycles of political conflict.
Second Mechanism: Cases and Victims of Enforced Disappearance During the Current Conflict
For years, Mwatana has documented cases of enforced disappearance by collecting related testimonies, statements, documents, and other evidence, and by verifying information concerning victims and the circumstances of their disappearance. This work has been conducted in accordance with an investigative and field-based methodology grounded in the best professional standards applicable to the documentation of human rights violations.
From the outbreak of the current conflict in Yemen in late September 2014 through August 2026, Mwatana for Human Rights documented 2,024 cases of enforced disappearance among them 117 children and 58 women. Ansar Allah (Houthi) group was responsible for 936 cases including 59 children and 32 women, while the Southern Transitional Council was responsible for 529 cases; including 14 children and 4 women, the internationally recognized government, including formations affiliated with the Islah Party, was responsible for 418 cases;including 33 children and 17 women, the Saudi/UAE-led coalition was responsible for 88 cases;including 6 children and 4 women, the Joint Forces on the western coast were responsible for 20 cases;including one woman, Eritrean forces were responsible for 19 cases; including 4children, and terrorist organizations were responsible for 14 cases including one child.
Mwatana emphasizes that the information presented through this interactive map does not constitute a comprehensive enumeration of all victims of enforced disappearance in Yemen. Rather, it is limited to cases that the organization was able to document and verify in accordance with the methodology it developed for this map. Mwatana further emphasizes the limited availability of data, the long periods of time that have elapsed since some of the incidents occurred, the continuation of the armed conflict, and the difficulty of accessing many victims, their families, witnesses, and relevant documents. Therefore, the actual number of victims is likely to be far higher than the number of cases that could be documented and included in this map.
As it launches the interactive map of enforced disappearances in Yemen, Mwatana for Human Rights expresses its deep appreciation for all efforts that have been and continue to be made to support victims of enforced disappearance and their families in Yemen. These efforts include, foremost, the tireless struggle of victims’ families; the Association of Families of the Forcibly Disappeared; Al-Nidaa newspaper; everyone who contributed to its special coverage of victims of enforced disappearance; the “Walls Remember Their Faces” campaign; and many other initiatives. Mwatana welcomes all comments, ideas, suggestions, additions, corrections, and reports that could enrich the content, substance, and data of the map.
Mwatana emphasizes that the interactive map of enforced disappearances in Yemen will remain an open project that can be updated whenever new information becomes available or additional cases can be verified. This will contribute to strengthening the right to know the truth, preserving the collective memory of victims, and supporting future efforts to uncover and disclose the truth, ensure accountability and reparation, and advance transitional justice, as a foundation for any genuine path toward achieving justice and building a comprehensive and sustainable peace in Yemen.
Mwatana calls on all former and current officials who possess accurate information concerning victims of enforced disappearance to voluntarily come forward to record and provide their testimonies and disclose all information and facts in their possession. They may do so through victims’ families, human rights organizations, the media, personal social media accounts, or written memoirs, in order to contribute to addressing the issue of enforced disappearance and alleviating the suffering of victims’ families.
Mwatana renews its call on all parties to the conflict in Yemen to immediately cease the practice of enforced disappearance; promptly disclose the fate and whereabouts of all persons subjected to enforced disappearance; ensure that all places of detention are subject to judicial oversight; prohibit secret and unofficial detention facilities; and fully comply with the safeguards established under national legislation, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law. Mwatana also calls on all parties, authorities, and security and military agencies to conduct independent, impartial, and effective investigations into all allegations of enforced disappearance and to hold accountable those responsible for committing, ordering, aiding and abetting, or concealing this crime, regardless of their positions or affiliations. It further calls for ensuring the right of victims and their families to truth, justice, redress, and reparation, including compensation, restitution, rehabilitation, and guarantees of non-recurrence.
Mwatana calls on the international community, the United Nations, and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to strengthen their efforts to monitor the situation of persons subjected to enforced disappearance in Yemen, increase pressure on all parties to the conflict to disclose their fate, ensure their compliance with their international obligations, support initiatives aimed at documenting this crime and preserving memory, and strengthen the right to know the truth.
