• Iran-backed group torched more than 40 properties, minister says

Arab News

LONDON: The Yemeni government on Wednesday strongly condemned and denounced the burning of dozens of homes by Houthi militia in several areas of the port city of Hodeidah.

Yemeni Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani said the Iran-backed group set fire to more than 40 homes in the villages of Markouda — which also houses a displacement camp — Al-Shujaira and Al-Nakhilah in the south of Hodeidah, which is controlled by the Houthi.

“The destruction of civilians’ homes by the terrorist Houthi militia in the villages south of the city of Hodeidah is an extension of its crime of destroying thousands of homes of state leaders, sheikhs, politicians, media professionals and military personnel who reject its coup in the various governorates under its control, and forcibly displacing their families, in flagrant violation of international law,” Al-Eryani said in tweet.

Amsterdam-based human rights organization Rights Radar condemned the burning of the homes, saying Monday it amounted to a “humanitarian disaster that doubled the suffering of the people of those areas.”

It said fires destroyed 26 houses in the village of Taif, seven in Markouda, five in Al-Shujaira and four in Al-Nakhilah, most of which belonged to displaced citizens who had been fleeing the fighting since the conflict began in 2014.

Rights Radar also said local sources accused members of the Houthi militia of deliberately setting fire to the homes.

“We demand the United Nations and its mission to support the Hodeidah Agreement and human rights organizations clearly and explicitly condemn this heinous terrorist crime,” Al-Eryani said.

He also called on the international community to work on classifying the Houthi militia as a terrorist organization, and to prosecute its leaders in international courts as war criminals.