The International Organization for Migration has called for urgent access to provide humanitarian aid to migrants who were injured in a fire that broke out last Sunday in a migrant detention center in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a.

The organization said that the number of victims of the fire is not known, but it indicated that more than 170 injured of them are still undergoing treatment, a number of them in critical condition.

The organization added - in a statement - that the detention center held about 900 immigrants, most of them Ethiopians, at the moment of the outbreak of the fire.

For its part, the Yemeni “Citizenship for Human Rights” organization said that members of the Houthi group were the ones who caused the fire, when they fired shells at the balconies of the detention center, in an attempt to break a hunger strike by African immigrants protesting the conditions of their detention.

According to the report of the "Mwatana for Human Rights" organization, the fire resulted in the death of a number of migrants and the injury of others. The Houthi group arrested a number of the wounded, prevented relief aid from entering them, and prevented their families from visiting them.

Earlier, the United Nations Migration Agency said that a fire broke out at a shelter for migrants in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, killing at least 8 people, including guards, and wounding more than 170 others on Sunday.

Carmela Godot, Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the Immigration Agency, said on Twitter that the total number of people killed in the fire may be higher, and the cause of the fire is still unknown.

The Ethiopian refugees demonstrated yesterday in front of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Sana'a, condemning the fire.

The refugees demanded an independent investigation into the incident, the punishment of those involved, and the release of all detainees.