Rights group urges UAE to stop alleged Yemeni prisoner abuse

CAIRO – Human Rights Watch is urging the United Arab Emirates to investigate and stop alleged mistreatment of prisoners in informal jails they oversee in Yemen that has led the detainees to go on hunger strike.

In a Thursday report, the U.S.-based group cites prisoners’ family members as saying the hunger strike began on Oct. 21 at the at Bir Ahmed military camp in Aden.

Sarah Leah Whitson, the group’s Middle East director, says “the UAE and their Yemeni proxies should stop denying responsibility for mistreatment and investigate and act on the complaints.”

Since 2015, a Saudi-led coalition including the UAE has imposed an air and sea blockade on Yemen and waged an extensive military campaign against Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, after they captured northern Yemen.