Incident Summary

Incident: Bombing a detention centre in Saada
Type: air strikes
Location: a detention centre (previously: the Central Security Camp) in Sahar district, on the administrative border with Saada city, the centre of Saada governorate.
Date: 21 January 2022
Time: between 00:50 - 02:30
Victims: 91 dead and 236 injured, including an African migrant.
Probable munitions: Paveway II - GBU-12 guided bomb
Probable responsibility: Saudi led coalition

Introduction

In the early hours of 21 January 2022, Almasirah TV of the Houthis (Ansar Allah) broadcast bloody scenes of victims under the rubble, as a result of air strikes targeting detention centre according to Almasirah TV crowded with hundreds of inmates of African migrants, prisoners and civilians in the pretrial prison-previously: the Central Security Camp-in Saada governorate, north of Yemen. The airstrikes occurred less than an hour after a nation-scale Internet blackout.

About the area

The detention centre (previously: the Central Security Camp) is located north of Sahar district, on the administrative border with Saada city, Saada governorate’s capital, approximately 2.5 km south of Saada International Airport.

Saada governorate, bordering Saudi Arabia on the northern borders of Yemen, is the main stronghold of Houthis and most of its leaders. It was announced by the Saudi-led coalition in May 2015 as a military target along with the Maran region.

The governorate has been subjected to violent air raids since the first day of Saudi led intervention in Yemen under the name: “Operation Decisive Storm”. The air raids hit military camps, government buildings, and the governorate’s infrastructure, including the Central Security Camp, which in mid-2020 turned into a detention centre affiliated with the Houthis under the name “Pre-trial prison in Saada.”

A satellite image of Saada city, the capital of Saada governorate. Google maps.

The incident

On 21 January, social media, news websites, and TV channels circulated news that the pretrial prison in Saada had been hit by air raids by the Saudi led coalition, resulting in dozens of killed and wounded prisoners, including African migrants.

A screenshot of a tweet by Doctors Without Borders

A screenshot of a tweet by Al Jazeera Breaking

The Coalition denied

Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Turki Al-Malki, said in a statement that “the alleged target was not included in the No-strike list (NSL) according to the mechanism approved with the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen (OCHA)” and that the “alleged target was not reported by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and does not apply to the standards set forth in the provisions of international humanitarian law.”

On January 27, 2022, the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) stated that it was continuing to follow up on all results of operations in Yemen and that it had launched an investigation into the incident by collecting relevant facts and information, confirming that it would share the results as soon as they are completed.

Time

The detention centre in Saada was bombed hours after the coalition hit the Communications building in al-Hodeidah with airstrikes, which led to a nation-scale Internet blackout two and a half hours after the strikes. The blackout led to the interruption of information sent out by local residents and the ability to analyse the timestamps of social media posts.

The last thing that was published by local Twitter accounts (Ahmed Saeed - Abu Jubran – Badeel-Q), before the Internet outage was information that there is a aircrafts flying over Saada governorate between 11:59 pm and 12:48 am, minutes before the Internet outage. A Saudi Twitter account, Mohammed, in response to another Twitter user commented at 12:52 am that the Coalition aircrafts launched air strikes on Saada.

A screenshot of Ahmed Saeed’s Tweet

A screenshot of Abu Gibran’s Tweet

A screenshot of Badeel-Q’s Tweet

A screenshot of Mohammed’s Tweet

According to statements of the head of the Doctors Without Borders mission in Yemen, and testimonies by the detention centre guards published in Almasirah Mubasher’s YouTube video, the bombing occurred between 02:00 - 02:30 am. Based on that, the probable time range for bombing the prison was between 12:50 and 02:30 am on 21 January.

A screenshot from Almasirah Mubasher video. The video shows the reception of the victims of the attack on the detention centre at Al-Jumhouri Hospital.

Based on the information about the flights and the bombing in on Twitter, in addition to the time of receiving the first victims of the bombing and the testimonies of the detention centre guards, we can determine the likely time targeting the centre ranges between 00:50 - 02:30 on 21 January 2022.

Location

The visual content from inside the detention centre, in Almasirah Mubasher video and pictures by SCMCHA YEMEN Twitter account showed four buildings in two different locations that were targeted, namely the first and second wards, and the seventh and eighth wards, as named by detention centre guard.

By comparing visual evidence with satellite images from Google Earth, and exclusive satellite images of the Yemeni Archive, we determined the location of the damaged buildings; wards No. 1 and 2 at coordinates: 16.931354, 43.732876, and wards No. 7 and 8 at coordinates: 16.929937, 43.730558.

A screenshot from Almasirah Mubasher video

A satellite image. © Yemeni Archive

A screenshot from Almasirah Mubasher video and photos from SCMCHA YEMEN Twitter account

A satellite image. Google Earth.

The area of the detention centre was previously a special forces camp in Saada, as the location information shows in Google Map. Then it was turned into a detention centre for African migrants and locals.

Previously, the camp was subjected to multiple air attacks from March 2015 to March 2018, hitting almost all buildings, with varying size and type of strikes, as shown by archival satellite images in Google Earth below.

First bombing on 27 March 2015. Second bombing in May 2015.

A satellite image, Google Earth, May 2015

A satellite image, Google Earth, July 2017

A satellite image, Google Earth, March 2018

In June 2020, the first development in the camp appeared, with the construction of a cement-brick wall surrounding the western building, and in the second half of December of the same year, the repair of the first dormitory and the restoration of the damage caused by the bombing began.

A satellite image, Google Earth, June 2020

A satellite image, Google Earth, 30 December 2020

The recent archival images available in Google Earth, dated 30 November 2021, showed the addition of walls and buildings with some unfished construction works that appeared in the post-attack images, which means that the developments continued until the end of 2021, that is, shortly before the attack .

A screenshot from Almasirah Mubasher video, Google Earth

On 19 November 2020, Walid Ali Omar al-Kathiri posted on Facebook the directives of the head of Saada Public Prosecution, in which he directed to detain suspects in the detention centre. This means that the camp has since effectively turned into a detention centre and received prisoners.

UN visits

Open source information include UN visits to the detention centre, all of which discussed the conditions of detained African migrants. Kakhaber Khasaia, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sub-delegation in Saada visited the centre the first time in April 2021, according to the Yemeni news agency SABA, which is affiliated to the Houthis.

A screenshot from Yemeni news agency SABA

In July of the same year, Andrea Noyes. Yemen Deputy Head of Office, at United Nations for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and Dina Parmer, Director of Programs at the International Organization for Migration, visited the centre, according to Almasirah website and a video published by the Issa Atef on YouTube. Analysis of visual evidence confirms that the visits were made to the detention centre.

A screenshot of Almasirah Net website

Screenshots from Yemen TV videos, Issa Atef, and Russian RT

Screenshots from Yemen TV and Issa Atef videos, on 7 July 2021

Google Earth satellite image of the detention centre (previously, Central Security Camp)

The Ummat as-Salam YouTube channel published a video by Almasirah TV, of Katharina Ritz, representative of the ICRC in Yemen, visiting the centre. The report stated that Catherina had visited the centre four times before, most recently on 28 December 2021 accompanied by the regional representative of ICRC.

We were not able to verify the statements claimed by the report, and we did not find tweets on Katharina Twitter during the last period referring to those visits.

Military activity at the detention centre

We did not find in the available open source content information that definitively proves the existence of military activity in the detention centre and that it was used as military base before the bombing, other than an empty truck hidden in the trees in a manner similar to the camouflage strategy used by the Houthis in camouflaging their military equipment.

The truck appeared in archival satellite images in Google Earth on 8, 13 and 14 November 2021, and disappeared on November 30. On day of the attack it reappeared behind the trees in the Almasirah Mubasher video.

A satellite image from Google Earth, 23 November 2021. The truck did not appear behind the trees in detention centre in Saada

A satellite image from Google Earth, 8 November 2021. The first appearance of the truck behind the trees

A satellite image from Google Earth, 13 November 2021. The truck is still behind the trees

A satellite image from Google Earth, 14 November 2021. The truck is still behind the trees

A satellite image from Google Earth, 14 November 2021, different angle. The truck is still behind the trees.

A satellite image from Google Earth, 30 November 2021. The truck disappeared

A screenshot from Almasirah Mubasher video

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Bombing a detention centre in Saada

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