Yemen accuses UAE-backed forces of grave human rights violations

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - ADEN — Yemen’s Ministry of Legal Affairs and Human Rights has accused the United Arab Emirates and affiliated forces of committing serious human rights violations in Yemen, citing a large number of complaints from citizens and civil society organizations alleging assassinations, abductions, enforced disappearances, torture and detention in secret prisons.

In a statement carried by the Yemeni News Agency (Saba) on Monday, the ministry said it had received multiple reports implicating Emirati officials, officers, UAE-backed Yemeni elements and foreign mercenaries in what it described as “grave crimes and gross violations of human rights.”

The ministry said the alleged violations contradict the principles on which the Saudi-led Arab Coalition to Support Legitimacy was founded, stressing that coalition members were expected to respect Yemen’s sovereignty and ensure the safety of its citizens.

According to the statement, the ministry has begun documenting and investigating the allegations, meeting with victims, families and witnesses, and visiting detention facilities described as secret prisons.

It said these sites lacked basic humanitarian standards and were used for harsh interrogation practices that violate Yemeni law, international human rights obligations and universally accepted moral principles.

The ministry added that it had reviewed reports by local, regional and international media and rights organizations, including findings published by Human Rights Watch on Jan. 30, 2026, regarding secret prisons and detention centers allegedly run by the UAE in Yemen.

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“These violations represent a clear breach of the constitution and national laws, as well as Yemen’s international human rights commitments,” the statement said, stressing that those responsible “cannot be above the law or beyond accountability.”

The ministry said it would continue receiving complaints through its offices and hotlines across the country and would pursue legal action through national judicial channels to ensure accountability and prevent impunity.

Separately, Human Rights Watch reported that on Jan. 27, 2026, the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council detained members of Yemen’s National Commission to Investigate Alleged Human Rights Violations after they visited an unofficial detention center in Socotra. The commission members were held for three hours, ordered not to return to the site, and later that day two former detainees who had spoken to investigators were also arrested.

One commission member described the detention center as “one of the worst things the commission has seen.”

Human Rights Watch and Associated Press have previously documented the existence of secret detention facilities run by the UAE and UAE-backed forces in Yemen.

Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the Southern Transitional Council had operated secret prisons for years where detainees were arbitrarily held and often forcibly disappeared.

“Now, the council is even arresting those who are investigating these abuses,” she said. “The Southern Transitional Council must be held accountable for its widespread violations.”