BBC News
ReutersAt least 68 African migrants have been killed in a US air strike on a detention centre in Houthi-controlled north-western Yemen, the armed group’s TV channel says.
Al Masirah reported that another 47 migrants were injured, most of them critically, when the centre in Saada province was bombed. It posted graphic footage showing multiple bodies covered in the rubble of a destroyed building.
There was no immediate comment from the US military.
But it came hours after US Central Command announced that its forces had hit more than 800 targets since President Donald Trump ordered an intensification of the air campaign against the Houthis on 15 March.
It said the strikes had “killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders”, including senior officials overseeing missile and drone programmes.
Houthi-run authorities have said the strikes have killed dozens of civilians, but they have reported few casualties among the group’s members.
The migrant detention centre in Saada was reportedly holding 115 Africans when it was hit on Sunday night.
Despite the humanitarian crisis in Yemen caused by 11 years of conflict, migrants continue to arrive in the country by boat from the Horn of Africa, most of them intending to cross into neighbouring Saudi Arabia to find work.
Instead, they face exploitation, detention, violence, and dangerous journeys through active conflict zones, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
In 2024 alone, it says, almost 60,900 migrants arrived in the country, often with no means to survive.
Earlier this month, the Houthi-run government said a series of US air strikes on the Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea coast killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others. It said the terminal was a civilian facility and that the strikes constituted a “war crime”.
Centcom said the attack destroyed the ability of Ras Isa to accept fuel and that it would “begin to impact Houthi ability to not only conduct operations, but also to generate millions of dollars in revenue for their terror activities”.
Last month, Trump ordered large-scale strikes on areas controlled by the Houthis and threatened that they would be “completely annihilated”. He has also warned Iran not to arm the group – something it has repeatedly denied doing.
On Sunday, Centcom said it would “continue to ratchet up the pressure until the objective is met, which remains the restoration of freedom of navigation and American deterrence in the region”.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted dozens of merchant vessels with missiles, drones and small boat attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. They have sunk two vessels, seized a third, and killed four crew members.
The Houthis have said they are acting in support of the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and have claimed – often falsely – that they are targeting ships only linked to Israel, the US or the UK.
The Houthis were not deterred by the deployment of Western warships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to protect merchant vessels last year, or by multiple rounds of US strikes on military targets ordered by former President Joe Biden.
After taking office in January, Trump redesignated the Houthis as a “Foreign Terrorist Organisation” – a status the Biden administration had removed due to what it said was the need to mitigate the country’s humanitarian crisis.
Over the last decade, Yemen has been devastated by a civil war, which escalated when the Houthis seized control of the country’s north-west from the internationally-recognised government, and a Saudi-led coalition supported by the US intervened in an effort to restore its rule.
The fighting has reportedly left more than 150,000 people dead and triggered a humanitarian disaster, with 4.8 million people displaced and 19.5 million – half of the population – in need of some form of aid.
