Amnesty International calls for investigation into US strike on Yemen prison

Yemen

Yamanat

Amnesty International has called for an urgent investigation into the US airstrike that targeted a prison in Yemen in April 2025, saying the attack could constitute a war crime.

The call recalls the raid that took place on April 28 in Saada governorate, northern Yemen, as part of an intensive air campaign led by the administration of former US President Donald Trump against Yemen, after the Houthi group was accused of obstructing navigation in the Red Sea during the war between Israel and Hamas.

The US Central Command has not yet provided details on the reasons for the targeting of the prison, which led to the deaths of more than 60 African immigrants.

This prison is known for detaining migrants trying to cross Yemeni territory to reach Saudi Arabia, and it had previously been bombed by the Riyadh-led coalition.

Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesman for US Central Command, said: “We take all reports of civilian casualties seriously and will soon release the results of the evaluation of Operation Rough Rider.”

According to Amnesty International, after the raid, authorities in Sanaa displayed the remains of two 250-pound precision-guided bombs (small diameter GBU-39 bombs), usually used by the US military.

Survivors of the attack, all Ethiopian immigrants arrested while trying to cross into Saudi Arabia, said they did not see any Houthi fighters inside the compound at the time of the attack.

The organization said the attack appeared “random” due to the lack of a clear military target, emphasizing that international humanitarian law prohibits targeting civilian facilities, such as hospitals and prisons, unless they are used for military purposes, and that even in these cases every precaution must be taken to avoid civilian casualties.

Amnesty said authorities in Sanaa reduced the death toll from 68 to 61 people, adding that video clips taken after the raid showed intermittent gunfire that the Houthis said were warning shots from prison guards during the attack.

Christine Beckerle, deputy director of the organization’s Middle East and North Africa program, said: “I couldn’t believe that the United States would carry out an airstrike on the same compound, causing so many civilian casualties. It’s hard to imagine that they weren’t aware of what was happening.”

For its part, the British organization “Air Wars”, which is responsible for documenting the victims of airstrikes, confirmed that the American military campaign (Operation Rough Rider) caused the deaths of at least 224 civilians in a few weeks, a number roughly equivalent to the total civilian casualties during more than two decades of American strikes in Yemen.

Yemen