By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2025-05-14

ADEN -- The Houthis' recent arrest of mosque imams is part of a wider pattern of human rights violations that is designed to establish control over areas that reject its ideology by force, experts said.

Rasd Center for Humanitarian and Development Studies has strongly condemned the Iran-backed group's actions in al-Bayda province, where it has escalated its military operations since January.

"The Houthi de facto authorities have bombed or set ablaze at least nine civilian homes since January 9 in the Hanket al-Massoud area in al-Bayda," the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies said.

The group has carried out attacks "using drones, tanks and heavy weaponry to destroy civilian homes, infrastructure and agricultural lands with a blatant disregard for civilian lives," it said.

Multiple civilians have been killed and dozens injured, it added, noting that the Houthis have severely restricted free movement in the area, while continuing to arbitrarily detain hundreds of villagers.

On April 17, the Rasd Center said the Houthis have arrested a number of preachers and mosque imams in al-Sawadiyah and al-Malagim districts, in a "flagrant violation of human rights and freedom of expression and belief."

The Houthis continue their attacks on civilians, it said, especially those transporting food or consumer goods from neighboring government-controlled areas, in an attempt to economically strangle the population.

Human rights violations

A Rasd Center report issued in March documents approximately 13,000 human rights violations the Houthis have committed in al-Bayda over the past decade.

This is part of their attempt to impose their influence on "all places of enlightenment, including mosques, universities and schools" in areas where they lack a popular base, Deputy Minister of Justice Faisal al-Majeedi told Al-Fassel.

Human rights organizations play an important role in monitoring and documenting the group's violations, Fahmi al-Zubairi, director general of the human rights office in Sanaa, told Al-Fassel.

By documenting violations that include assault, kidnapping, forced displacement, movement restrictions and damage to public and private property, rights groups can help to ensure the perpetrators will not escape punishment, he said.

The documented violations "represent only a small fraction" of the crimes committed by the Houthis, he said.

He noted that undermining the Houthis begins with "blocking access to Iranian weapons, cutting off their financial resources, isolating them from the world, and imposing sanctions on and targeting their leaders."

"The Houthis think they can break the Yemenis and bring them to their knees in the manner that occurred in al-Bayda," said Ishraq al-Maqtari of the National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations to Human Rights in Yemen.

"But they do not realize that this madness will only hasten their end," she said on X.