US forces struck a migrant detention center in Saada, Yemen, on April 28, 2025, reportedly killing over 68 civilians and injuring dozens more. Human Rights Watch verified a video posted by the Houthi-run news channel, Al-Masirah, also verified by the newswire service Reuters, that showed migrants and asylum seekers dead and injured in the aftermath of the strike. Those killed and injured were reportedly all of African nationalities who were being held in the detention center in the Houthi-controlled area.
This airstrike is one of over 800 that the United States has carried out in Yemen since March 15, 2025, when the Trump administration began a new campaign of airstrikes in Yemen. Based on Human Rights Watch research, the airstrikes appear to have caused extensive civilian harm, likely killing and injuring hundreds of civilians.
Failing to take all feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law. Deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are war crimes.
This is not the first time warring parties in Yemen have struck a migrant detention center and killed scores of migrants. In 2022, the Saudi-led coalition struck a detention center in the same compound in Saada, killing over 91 people and injuring 236; a possible war crime in which the United States may have been complicit.
The following quote can be attributed to Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch:
"US airstrikes are appearing to kill and injure civilians in Yemen at an alarming rate over the past month under a Trump administration that has loosened policy constraints on the use of force and is seeking to marginalize Pentagon offices charged with mitigating civilian harm."
