Rights group: Detainees in overcrowded Yemen prison at risk of COVID-19

Jul 2, 2020

A prison linked to a separatist group in southern Yemen is at major risk of a COVID-19 outbreak, Human Rights Watch said today. 

At Bir Ahmed, a detention center affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council, prisoners lack masks, gloves and basic hygiene products, the rights group said. Relatives told Human Rights Watch that 44 detainees were transferred in early April to a 10-square-meter (108-square-foot) room that had previously held four people.

“The grossly overcrowded conditions and absence of health care at Aden’s Bir Ahmed facility threatens the lives of detainees and facility staff as Covid-19 spreads in Yemen,” said Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement. “The Southern Transitional Council authorities should urgently address the inhumane detention conditions and release those detained arbitrarily.”

The Mothers of Abductees Association, a group whose relatives have been detained by various armed groups, said the prisoners at Bir Ahmed have been held there for up to two years without charge. According to the association, at least one guard experiencing coronavirus-like symptoms died in May and another became extremely sick. 

In April, the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council declared self-rule in the southern port city of Aden and throughout the country’s southern governorates.