YEMENI authorities are holding detainees at an overcrowded detention centre in the country’s south, exposing them to “serious health risks” amid the coronavirus pandemic, Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned today.

The detainees at Aden’s informal detention facility of Bir Ahmed are being denied personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves and sanitisers as well as basic healthcare services. 

A spokesman for the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which controls the facility, was not immediately available for comment.

HRW deputy Middle East director Michael Page said: “The grossly overcrowded conditions and absence of healthcare at [the facility] threatens the lives of detainees and facility staff as Covid-19 spreads in Yemen.

“The STC authorities should urgently address the inhumane detention conditions and release those detained arbitrarily.”

HRW quoted relatives of five detainees at Bir Ahmed as saying authorities affiliated with the southern secessionists transferred 44 detainees into a room of only 107 square feet, where only four people had been previously held.

The group cited detainee accounts indicating that one prison guard had already died of Covid-19 and another became “severely ill” with symptoms. 

Yemen has recorded nearly 1,200 virus cases so far, including 319 deaths. 

The war between a Saudi Arabia-led coalition and Houthi rebels has resulted in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen and left the country with a healthcare system unable to successfully battle coronavirus while dealing with widespread famine.

Last week, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the security council that the virus was spreading rapidly across Yemen, killing about 25 per cent of confirmed cases, five times the global average.

The world’s richest countries have contributed to this catastrophe, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said today.

In a statement, the NGO said: “Global and regional powers, including the US, the UK and France, are supplying weapons to warring parties, which continues to kill innocent people and devastate health facilities and schools. 

“It is vital that these countries use their influence and resources to resolve the conflict, not fuel it — and that those responsible for violations of international law in Yemen are held to account.”

The IRC is calling for an immediate nationwide ceasefire to allow a humanitarian response to the pandemic and other deadly diseases and to prevent impending starvation.