Houthis say death toll reaches at least 68 in US strike on Yemen detention center for African migrants

Houthi rebel-controlled media in Yemen says that US strikes targeted a migrant detention center in the movement’s stronghold of Saada, killing at least 68 people.

The US military has hit the Iran-backed Houthis with near-daily strikes since March 15 in an operation dubbed “Rough Rider,” seeking to end the threat they pose to vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The Houthis have been launching strikes targeting Israel and Western vessels in the Red Sea, in what they describe as solidarity with the Palestinians, since Hamas conducted the worst-ever attack on Israel in October 2023.

Yesterday, the US military said it has hit more than 800 targets in Yemen since mid-March, killing hundreds of Houthi rebels including members of the group’s leadership.

“The civil defense has announced that 68 African migrants were killed and 47 others wounded in the US attack targeting a center for illegal migrants in the city of Saada,” the Houthis’ Al-Masirah TV said.

AFP could not independently confirm the veracity of Al-Masirah’s claim that the strikes had hit a migrant detention center, or the toll.

AFP has contacted the US military for comment.

According to a statement cited by Al-Masirah from the Houthi administration’s interior ministry, the center housed “115 migrants, all from Africa.”

The broadcaster showed footage of bodies stuck under the rubble and of rescuers working to help the casualties.

Each year, tens of thousands of migrants brave the Eastern Route from the Horn of Africa, seeking to escape conflict, natural disasters and poor economic prospects by sailing across the Red Sea toward the oil-rich Gulf.

Many hope for employment as laborers or domestic workers in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries, though they face a perilous journey through war-torn Yemen.