SANAA: Yemen’s Ansar Allah expressed “deep regret” on Wednesday over the deaths of dozens of migrants in a fire which Human Rights Watch said started when the fighters fired projectiles into a detention centre.
A senior official in the fighter movement, which is locked in a six-year campaign against the internationally recognised government, said that an investigation into the March 7 incident was under way.
“We express our deep regret over the accidental incident at the migrant detention centre in Sanaa,” said Ansar Allah official Hussein Al Azi, according to the fighters’ Al Masirah television.
“The victims are 44 migrants and the wounded are 193, most of whom have gone to hospital, and there is an investigation into the reasons for the incident.”
The United Nations called on Tuesday for an independent investigation into the blaze, shortly after Human Rights Watch blamed it on “unidentified projectiles” fired by the Ansar Allah fighters.
“There must be an independent investigation into the cause of the fire,” the UN envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, told the Security Council.
He added that the “extraordinary, horrific fire” had reminded the world “of the plight of the migrant community”.
The fighters control much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa which was captured from the government in 2014, sparking the devastating conflict.
HRW said detainees — most of them Ethiopian — had been protesting against overcrowding when camp guards rounded up hundreds of them into a hangar and fired two projectiles into the building.
“The migrants said the first projectile produced a lot of smoke and made their eyes water and sting. The second, which the migrants called a ‘bomb’, exploded loudly and started a fire,” it said in a report.
Footage of the aftermath, which AFP obtained from a survivor, showed dozens of charred bodies piled on top of one another and strewn across the ground. One person was heard crying out in prayer.
The rights group said hundreds of injured migrants were being treated in hospitals in Sanaa where a “heavy security presence” had posed problems for humanitarian agencies seeking access.
A video published by HRW showed security forces walking among survivors outside the facility as the fire raged inside, sending black smoke billowing into the sky. — AFP
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