Human Rights Watch warned today, Thursday, that the Coruna virus threatens the lives of detainees in a detention center in Aden Governorate, which is under the control of what is known as the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council.
This was stated in a report by the International Human Rights Organization supported by testimonies of the families of the Yemeni detainees.
Michael Page, deputy director of the organization's Middle East division, said that the conditions of severe overcrowding and the absence of health care at the "Bir Ahmed" center in Aden threaten the lives of detainees in it amid the spread of the Corona virus in Yemen.
He explained that last April, the detention center authorities transferred 44 detainees to a room not exceeding 10 square meters, in which four people were previously held.
He added that the detainees lacked the masks, gloves and personal hygiene tools necessary to protect themselves from the Corona virus, in addition to the lack of services and health care.
The organization called on the Southern Transitional Council to take immediate steps to alleviate overcrowding and reduce the spread of the virus threat.
Page said the council should urgently address the inhumane conditions of detention and release the detainees arbitrarily without charge or just for exercising their basic rights.
Violations
"The Aden authorities should end the numerous human rights violations that include putting detainees in a very narrow space during the Coruna outbreak, and releasing people who are not a threat," according to the same report.
According to local and international reports, the Southern Transitional Council holds hundreds of civilians in unofficial prisons, without bringing them to trial or announcing the reasons for their arrest.
And last May, the Yemeni government announced that Aden had become a city infested following a high death toll and corona injuries.
On April 26 last, the Southern Transitional imposed a state of public emergency in Aden and the governorates of the south, and inaugurated what it called a self-administration for the south, amid Arab and international rejection.