U.S. strike that killed African migrants may be war crime, Amnesty says

A U.S. airstrike on a Houthi-run detention center in northern Yemen that killed more than 60 detained African migrants in April may amount to a war crime, Amnesty International said on Wednesday, calling for an urgent, independent investigation into what it described as a potentially unlawful attack on civilians.

The April 28 strike hit a prison complex in Saada province, a stronghold of Iran-backed Houthi rebels, during Operation Rough Rider, a U.S. air campaign that escalated sharply under former President Donald Trump. The operation targeted the Houthis after they repeatedly attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea corridor, a critical global trade route.

Amnesty’s field investigation found that the strike destroyed large sections of the prison, which was known to hold Ethiopian migrants intercepted while trying to reach Saudi Arabia through Yemen. The rights group said survivors interviewed on site reported no Houthi fighters or military activity at the compound before the blast.

Fragments recovered from the debris included pieces of two 250-pound GBU-39 precision-guided bombs, commonly used by U.S. forces, Amnesty said.

“It kind of defies belief that the U.S. would not have known,” said Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

No clear military objective

The organization said the strike appeared to violate international humanitarian law, which prohibits attacks on civilian facilities such as hospitals and prisons unless they are being used for military purposes.

“Amnesty assessed no clear military objective,” the group said, calling the assault an “indiscriminate attack.”

The Houthis recently revised the death toll to 61 people, down from the 68 initially reported. Video recorded after the explosion captured sporadic gunfire; rebel officials said guards fired warning shots around the time of the strike.

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has not released its assessment of the attack. “We take all reports of civilian harm seriously and are working to release the assessment results for Operation Rough Rider soon,” U.S. Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins told Politico.

The Saada prison compound was also struck in 2022 by a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis, killing 66 detainees and wounding 113, according to a United Nations investigation. That report found that Houthi guards later executed 16 escapees.

Airwars, a U.K.-based monitor of civilian casualties, estimates that at least 224 civilians were killed during the Rough Rider campaign — nearly matching the total civilian toll from over two decades of U.S. air operations in Yemen.

“You’re talking about people who left Ethiopia to earn money in the Gulf,” Beckerle said. “Now their families have to send money to Yemen to help them recover from injuries instead.”