Enforced Disappearance Crimes Committed During the Armed Conflict in Yemen
Saturday, 30 August 2025
In a press release launching its new report “Suspended Destinies”, which sheds light on crimes of enforced disappearance in Yemen during the ongoing conflict from September 2014 through July 2025, and released today in conjunction with the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances (marked each year on 30 August), Mwatana for Human Rights stated that enforced disappearance constitutes one of the most serious and complex human rights violations, committed on a widespread scale by all parties to the armed conflict in Yemen.
According to the report, Mwatana’s central and field teams documented no fewer than 1,569 incidents of enforced disappearance and carried out at least 2,038 in-depth interviews with victims’ families across Yemeni governorates. These crimes were committed systematically and extensively by various parties to the conflict, including the Ansar Allah group (Houthis), responsible for 741 cases; the Southern Transitional Council (385 cases); the internationally recognized government and armed formations affiliated with the Islah party (347 cases); the Saudi/UAE-led coalition (60 cases); the Joint Forces on the West Coast (15 cases); and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (12 cases).
The report highlights harrowing human suffering, with families of the disappeared trapped in a cycle of anxiety and waiting, deprived of any information on the fate of their loved ones and denied access to legal or official channels to locate them. It presents direct testimonies documenting how enforced disappearance has become a tool for political score-settling and terrorizing communities, while official silence and denial compound the psychological torment, leaving families suspended between hope and despair.
Mwatana noted that hundreds of victims of enforced disappearance remain unaccounted for after being taken from their homes or workplaces, detained at checkpoints or on the streets, and then disappeared without acknowledgment from any official or de facto authority. Families of these victims endure painful waiting, moving between different authorities in search of answers, only to encounter silence or denial—a pattern replicated across areas controlled by all conflict parties in Yemen.
Radhya Al-Mutawakel, Chairperson of Mwatana for Human Rights, stated:
“Families of the victims of enforced disappearance live in an endless cycle of fear and uncertainty, deprived of their right to know the fate of their loved ones, and unable to take any legal, social, or even personal steps, due to the absence of information which is the foundation of any human or legal action.”
Al-Mutawakel added:
“All parties must immediately address the crimes of enforced disappearance in Yemen on the basis of truth-seeking, justice for victims, and accountability, as a necessary step toward ending impunity and achieving justice.”
The report recalls that the UN Group of Eminent Experts (GEE) on Yemen, in its final report submitted to the President of the Security Council on 2 November 2023, noted that many violations, including enforced disappearance, were often carried out under the pretext of suspected affiliation with opposition groups, under the guise of “counterterrorism,” or for ransom. The violations affected a wide spectrum of civilians, including human rights defenders, civil society members, local and international staff, humanitarian workers, as well as journalists—alongside ordinary citizens with no political or military connections.
“Suspended Destinies” stresses that international humanitarian law and international human rights law guarantee a package of fundamental rights that should protect individuals from enforced disappearance, including the right to legal recognition, liberty and personal security, protection from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the right to life, personal identity, fair trial and judicial safeguards, and the right to effective remedies including redress and compensation, in addition to the right to know the truth about the circumstances of enforced disappearance.
The report underscores that enforced disappearance constitutes a crime against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, as it removes victims from the protection of the law and opens the door to further grave violations, from torture to extrajudicial killing, while denying families truth and justice. It classifies enforced disappearance as a “complex and continuous crime” with cumulative violations against both victims and their families, making it one of the most dangerous crimes against humanity and a major factor in undermining justice and the rule of law. This imposes a legal and moral obligation on states—including Yemen—to hold perpetrators accountable and ensure non-repetition.
The report also presents examples of emblematic cases of enforced disappearance involving various conflict parties, and highlights the lasting social impact of this crime on families and communities condemned to prolonged waiting.
It further documents Mwatana’s ongoing efforts to support victims and their families, including free legal aid through a network of lawyers across most Yemeni governorates, as well as monitoring and documenting these violations. The report also references Mwatana’s previous publications such as “They Are Not Here” and “In the Dark”, which documented patterns of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance, in addition to the documentary film “Ambiguous Fate”, which captured powerful testimonies on the deep psychological and social toll of the crime.
Mwatana emphasized the urgent need to establish independent investigative bodies to monitor and follow up on enforced disappearance crimes, and to integrate this issue within transitional justice processes and future political agreements, in order to guarantee truth, accountability, reparations, and the reintegration of victims’ families.
The organization called on all conflict parties in Yemen—including Ansar Allah (Houthis), the internationally recognized government and armed formations affiliated with the Islah party, the Southern Transitional Council, the Saudi/UAE-led coalition, and the Joint Forces—to halt the practice of enforced disappearance, disclose the fate of all victims, allow families and international organizations access to them, release them, close all unofficial detention sites, and ensure judicial oversight of all detention facilities. It also stressed the importance of transparent criminal investigations, prosecuting perpetrators, compensating victims, and creating updated official registries with the names and details of the disappeared.
Finally, Mwatana urged the United Nations and the international community to play a more active role in addressing enforced disappearance in Yemen, including pressing for peace, compelling parties to reveal the fate of the disappeared, and renewing calls for the establishment of an international investigative mechanism with a criminal mandate for Yemen, and for referring the file to the International Criminal Court to ensure accountability and justice for victims.
