Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) strongly condemns the continued and systematic targeting of journalists and media workers in Yemen amid international silence and full impunity.
On Wednesday, June 15, 2022, the Yemeni journalist Saber Al-Haidari was killed after an explosive device was planted in his car in the southern city of Aden.
Local sources affirmed that an improvised explosive device had been planted in the car of Saber Al-Haidari. Two other men were killed during the incident, while a third was seriously injured, the sources added.
No group claimed responsibility immediately for the attack. However, fingers are pointed at armed groups affiliated to Houthi rebels.
Prior to his killing, Al-Haidari said in a series of posts on Twitter that he had fled the capital, Sanaa, in 2017 due to increasing restrictions by the Houthi rebels who hold the city.
The incident is the last of a series of systematic attacks targeting journalists and media freedoms in the war-torn country.
Last November, journalist Rasha Al-Harazi, who was pregnant, was killed in a similar car explosion in Aden. Mohammed Al-Otimi, her husband, who was in the car, was seriously wounded. Both of them hail from the western province of Hodeidah and settled in Aden after fleeing their home province due to Houthi repression.
Yemeni media workers are subjected to a systematic and almost-daily human rights violations and abuses by the two warring parties, including arbitrary detention, kidnapping, chasing, harassment, threats, incitement, attacks, coverage banning, and assassination.
Yemen is classified as a “high-risk” country for journalists and ranked in 167th place out of 180 countries in the 2020’s World Press Freedom Index and 169th in 2021.
In 2021, more than 50 journalists have lost their lives while 104 human rights violations against journalists were reported.
