A recent report reveals the crimes, violations committed by the occupying countries, their militias against the people of the occupied southern governorates

The secret prisons in the occupied southern governorates is one of the most prominent closed black files and the most important tools of oppression and intimidation practiced by the Saudi-Emirati occupying countries against opponents of their criminal practices and destructive policies.

Despite the local and international condemnations of the physical and psychological torture, crimes that hundreds of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons have been subjected to in the secret prisons of the occupation countries during the past years. They expanded throughout the occupied governorates from the western coast to Al-Mahra and the archipelago of Socotra, reflecting the brutality of the Saudi-Emirati occupation countries and revealing the policy of subjugating society and submitting it to the occupation authorities with oppression and abuse.

A report issued by the Media Center for the southern governorates revealed the crimes and violations committed by the occupying countries and their militias against the sons of the occupied southern governorates during the past years.

It explained that according to monitoring and tracking the occupation crimes in in there, their number, criminalized by international humanitarian law, and has increased from 26 at the end of 2019 to 42 by the end of last month. Human rights sources there estimated the number of detainees more than two thousand and 500 ones.

Despite the exposure of many of the crimes committed in the secret prisons of the Emirates and its militias in the southern governorates during 2016-2019, the Saudi occupier proceeded with the same approach. Riyadh granted the militias affiliated to it from Islah Party in Shabwa, Wadi Hadramout and Al Qaeda in Abyan, green light in establishing more prisons.

According to the report, no secret prison belonging to the UAE has been closed during the past two years, despite Abu Dhabi’s announcement of its withdrawal from Yemen and handing over the occupation leadership to Saudi Arabia in early October 2019. In addition, all prisons and detention centers that were affiliated with the Ministry of the Interior before the occupation were transformed into prisons belonging to the armed militias of the occupation countries.

The report stated that the militias have established illegal detention centers in the camps’ headquarters of the occupation militias in the various southern governorates.

According to information obtained by the Media Center for the Southern Governorates, Aden governorate is still the main headquarters of the Emirati secret prisons that are managed under cover by the Saudi occupation forces that took over their leadership from the Emirati occupier in early October 2019.

The report pointed out that the secret prisons are located in Bir Ahmed region, west of Aden, three prisons, one of which is a group prison, the second is a solitary prison that has been established, and the third is a secret prison dedicated to the forcibly disappeared, in addition to that support forces, the security belt and the special forces camp in the city have group and solitary prisons. Political and national prisons in Aden have been to secret prisons belonging to the militias of the Southern Transitional Council affiliated with the Emirates, with the exception of the Central Prison in Aden, which is still subject to the Public Prosecution in Aden.

The report emphasized that the aforementioned prisons are not subject to the Public Prosecution or the government of fugitive Hadi and refuses to present the detainees to the Specialized Criminal Court or other courts in the city and has not dealt with any orders or directives issued by the government of Hadi.

The report indicated that the International Committee of the Red Cross and organizations concerned with protecting human rights were prevented from visiting and dealing with them.
The UAE’s secret prisons in Aden hold more than 800 detainees, of whom more than 87 are forcibly disappeared.

The report of the Media Center for the Southern Governorates indicated that, according to human rights sources, the file of prisons and detention centers directly and indirectly affiliated with the Emirates in the city of Mokha and Khokha in the western coast and Bir Ahmed area west of Aden and the port of Balhaf located in Radoum district of Shabwa governorate and the detention facilities at Al Rayyan International Airport and Daba oil port in Al-Mukalla were personally managed by the mercenary Ammar Afash .He was assigned by the UAE Ministry of Interior in early 2017 to manage the prison and detention center file in the southern governorates.

The mercenary Ammar Afash is considered primarily responsible for torture and abuse crimes in the West Coast detention centers and Bir Ahmed area in Aden, while an Emirati officer called Abu Saif and dozens of Emirati soldiers run the task of torture in the secret prisons in the port of Balhaf. The task of torture was entrusted to, in the secret prisons At Al-Rayyan airport and Dhabba oil port, Emirati soldiers and officers of the so-called Hadrami Elite.

In light of the multiple loyalties and division of the militias of the occupying countries, secret prisons multiplied, and the absence of the role of civil society organizations against crimes of extrajudicial detention in the occupied governorates contributed to the establishment of the Saudi occupation authorities in Al-Mahra governorate and the militias present on the western coast recently outlaw prisons.

The report stated that the mercenary militia, Tariq Afash, runs four secret prisons in Mokha, Yakhlal and Khokha, and the most dangerous of those prisons in which the most severe forms of physical and psychological torture are practiced is the prison of Abu Moses Camp. It is one of the secret detention centers of Tariq Afash.

The report indicated that Tariq Afash militia, during the past few days, with Emirati funding, established new detention centers in Jabal al-Nar and transferred dozens of detainees from their prisons in Abu Moses camp to the new prison in Al-Khawkhah, which Afash militias have turned into a large, multi-prisons detention facility, which houses “Al-Daghah” prison, which is one of the secret detention centers of Tariq Afash.

The southern Giants militia also owns its prisons, it has been proven involved in committing torture crimes against citizens who were arrested without legal justification during the past months, and the so-called accusative resistance takes over the electricity prison. In addition, there were the military intelligence prison and the military police prison of mercenary Tariq Afash.

According to human rights sources, dozens of detainees died in prisons affiliated with Tariq Afash militia because of torture, and many of their bodies were disposed of and buried in areas devoid of population.

In the governorate of Abyan, which is witnessing a military conflict between militias loyal to the UAE and others affiliated with Islah party and forces affiliated with Hadi, the report confirmed that loyalists of the Emirates have established prisons and detention centers, and Islah militia owns a number of prisons in Shakra region.

The report stated that Al-Qaeda has training camps and military points in the central region, Akkad region, and in the districts of Ahwar and Al-Wadia, as well as it owns prisons and detention centers.

In Shabwa governorate and Hadramout valley, the so-called Islah militias have established prisons and detention centers in Ataq and outside it, and it has been proven that the leadership of the First Military Region in Seiyun has made arrests against civilians.
In Al-Mahra governorate, the report indicated that the occupying Saudi forces established several secret prisons at Al-Ghaydah airport and turned the headquarters of the Saudi occupation forces into detention centers, in addition to the creation of UAE militias in Socotra archipelago, in addition to illegal detention centers and prisons there.

The forms of torture practiced by the occupation forces in the secret prisons of the UAE vary between torture with electric sticks, hanging on the prison wall, pouring cold water on detainees, stripping them and holding their breath, severe beatings, sleep deprivation, and preventing them from visiting their families.

The report presented the acts of torture practiced by the occupation forces against detainees in secret prisons, especially preventing them from food and drinking for a period of 24 hours, insulting, and deluding them with killing others. In addition, the STC and Tareq Afash militias extorted in exchange for their release and the commitment not to reveal what they were subjected to.

On the other hand, Islah militia extort the families of the detainees and release some of them for money after they extract from them forced confessions under torture and fabricate malicious charges against them .Then the detainee’s family pays huge sums for their release, while the Emirati side in Mina Balhaf prison practices the most horrific violations against detainees, using dogs to extracting forced confessions and dumping detainees in solitary confinement for months.

Although those militias affiliated with the occupation intimidated humanitarian activists and arrested a large number of them during the past years, last week they imposed restrictions on the media operating in the city of Aden and imposed prior censorship on media work and stipulated that the media in the city obtain licenses to conduct work.