At least 68 African migrants have been killed in a US air strike on a detention centre in Houthi-controlled north-western Yemen, the armed group’s TV channel says.
Al Masirah reported that another 47 migrants were injured, most of them critically, when the centre in Saada province was bombed. It posted graphic footage showing multiple bodies covered in the rubble of a destroyed building.
There was no immediate comment from the US military.
But it came hours after US Central Command announced that its forces had hit more than 800 targets since President Donald Trump ordered an intensification of the air campaign against the Houthis on 15 March.
It said the strikes had “killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders”, including senior officials overseeing missile and drone programmes.
Houthi-run authorities have said the strikes have killed dozens of civilians, but they have reported few casualties among the group’s members.
The migrant detention centre in Saada was reportedly holding 115 Africans when it was hit four times shortly before 05:00 local time (02:00 GMT) on Monday, according to Al Masirah.
The casualty reports could not be immediately verified, but Al Masirah’s videos showed first responders recovering the bodies of at least a dozen menamong pieces of concrete and metal debris on the floor of a large building with partially destroyed walls and no roof.
One injured man could be heard calling out “My mother” in Amharic, Ethiopia’s official language, according to Reuters news agency.
At a local hospital, another injured man told Al Masirah: “The strike hit us while we were sleeping, that’s it.”
The Houthi-run interior ministry condemned what it called the “deliberate bombing” of the facility and said it constituteda “war crime”.
The UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said it was “deeply saddened by the reports of the tragic loss of life in Saada”.
“While IOM has not been operating at this facility, we remain committed to closely monitoring the situation and stand ready to offer support as needed,” it added.
“We call on all parties to the conflict to prioritize the protection of civilians and ensure full respect for international laws.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said teams from the Yemen Red Crescent Society provided lifesaving support by evacuating the wounded to hospitals and were ensuring a dignified management of the dead.
It added that the detention facility was run and supervised by local authorities, and that it was previously visited by the ICRC as part of its work ensuring humane detention conditions.
Last month, Trump ordered large-scale strikes on areas controlled by the Houthis and threatened that they would be “completely annihilated”. He also warned Iran not to arm the group – something it has repeatedly denied doing.
On Sunday, Centcom said it would “continue to ratchet up the pressure until the objective is met, which remains the restoration of freedom of navigation and American deterrence in the region”.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted dozens of merchant vessels with missiles, drones and small boat attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. They have sunk two vessels, seized a third, and killed four crew members.
The Houthis have said they are acting in support of the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and have claimed – often falsely – that they are targeting ships only linked to Israel, the US or the UK.
The Houthis were not deterred by the deployment of Western warships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to protect merchant vessels last year, or by multiple rounds of US strikes on military targets ordered by former President Joe Biden.
After taking office in January, Trump redesignated the Houthis as a “Foreign Terrorist Organisation” – a status the Biden administration had removed due to what it said was the need to mitigate the country’s humanitarian crisis.
Yemen has been devastated by a civil war, which escalated in 2015 when the Houthis seized control of the country’s north-west from the internationally-recognised government, and a Saudi-led coalition supported by the US intervened in an effort to restore its rule.
The fighting has reportedly left more than 150,000 people dead and triggered a humanitarian disaster, with 4.8 million people displaced and 19.5 million – half of the population – in need of some form of aid.