Houthis killing coronavirus patients in Yemen

Ahmed Adel

The Iran-backed Houthi militia is stepping up its atrocities in Yemen, using the ongoing outbreak of the coronavirus in the country.

The Houthis have decided to kill whoever proves positive for the virus, instead of presenting medical care to the patients.

According to the news site, al-Mashhad al-Yamani, Houthi minister of health Taha al-Mutawakil gave an injunction to quarantine officials in Yemeni capital Sana'a to kill however proves positive for the new disease by injecting them with a killer material.

A death certificate is then issued the dead, but the certificate does not specify the coronavirus as the cause of death, al-Mashhad said.

Yemeni Information Minister Muammar al-Eriani, meanwhile, accused the Houthis of committing mass executions against coronavirus patients in Sana'a.

There are dozens of testimonies to the crimes committed by the Houthis in the Yemeni capital, al-Eriani wrote on Twitter on May 20.

He said the Iran-backed militia kills those suspected with contracting the coronavirus, even without conducting enough tests for them.

Al-Eriani said the Houthis are committing what he described as "organized killing" against millions of Yemenis.

We cannot keep silent while all this is happening, he said.

He called on the United Nations and the World Health Organization to launch an inquiry into the Houthi crimes and commit the Iran-sponsored militia to the coronavirus health guidelines.

The Houthis shelled the camps of medical professionals working to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in a number of Yemeni cities last week.

The office of the World Health organization in the northeastern city of Ma'rib said on May 17 that the Houthis had shelled a coronavirus testing point in the city.