By targeting prisons, oil stations, Houthis are responding to calls for UN truce

Ahmed Adel

In a new blatant challenge by the Iranian-backed Houthi militias to the United Nations, they decided not to comply with the international calls for a ceasefire in Yemen, and they worked on continuous escalation against civilians and military personnel in the country.

UN call

In March 2020, the United Nations called for the necessity of a ceasefire in Yemen, against the backdrop of the emergence of coronavirus in the country, calling on all parties in Yemen to unite efforts to confront the virus.

But the Houthi militia have responded to these calls, and implemented many terrorist attacks that could destabilize the country.

Prison terrorism

Houthi militias continued to carry out terrorist operations in women’s prisons, which have become the target of Iranian-backed missiles, striving to dispel peace opportunities in Yemen, as well as oil installations, which are among the country’s most important capabilities, and are supposed to neutralize them, but the Houthis are trying to ignite the situation in the country.

The attack on the women’s prison

On Saturday 4 March 2020, the Yemeni legitimate government directed the judicial authorities in the country to release 120 Yemeni women prisoners, in order to reduce the loads on Yemeni prisons in the women’s section, in the central prison in Taiz, southwest of Yemen.

Bombing the women’s section in prison

As a result of the terrorist attack, female inmates at the women’s section of the Central Prison died, while 25 other prisoners were injured, and among the victims are a number of children, who were visiting their families, as well as two girls who had been living in prison, accompanied by their mothers years ago.

Immediately, many human rights organizations condemned the terrorist operation. The coalition of civil society organizations described the “monitoring” of the bombing as deliberate to thwart the humanitarian efforts to release the prisoners, in order to preserve their lives from the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

The Human Rights Office in Taiz governorate said that some women prisoners were killed, while others were injured, and they were treated in hospitals near the prison.

Targeting oil installations

On Sunday 5 March 2020, the Houthi militia carried out a new terrorist operation to strike the economic infrastructure of Yemen, by targeting the pumping station for the Safer oil pipeline in the Sarwah district, west of Yemen’s Marib governorate.

According to the statement of the Yemeni Oil Ministry, which confirmed that the Houthi terrorist operation came at a time when the government was moving to restart the oil sectors with the aim of boosting the national economy.

Yemeni response

For its part, the Yemeni government replied, on Sunday 5 March 2020, through Prime Minister Moein Abdel Malik, saying, “The attack on the oil facilities in Sagouat is a clear indication of the Houthi militia’s continued aggressive approach and its explicit rejection of all calls for peace and international calm.”

While describing the bombing of the women’s prison as a “heinous terrorist crime,” the Yemeni prime minister said that these Houthi operations in Taiz and Marib are “compelling evidence of the militia’s insistence to deepen the causes of the war that sparked it, and expand the circle of victims to reach all Yemenis”.