Geneva – The US military's targeting of a migrant detention centre in Yemen has resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries. The strike represents a dangerous escalation in Operation Rough Rider, constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian law, and may amount to a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The United States Air Force launched a strike on Monday morning in the Saada Governorate in northern Yemen, directly targeting a detention facility housing African migrants. According to local civil defence sources, at least 68 migrants were killed and around 47 others were wounded.
Footage reviewed by Euro-Med Monitor of the immediate aftermath of the attack shows that the building—constructed of concrete walls and a tin roof—suffered near-total destruction, indicating that the detention facility was directly targeted. Emergency and civil defence teams recovered bodies from the rubble, while dozens of seriously injured individuals were transported to the Republican Hospital Authority in Saada.
The absence of any evidence demonstrating that the US military took precautionary measures to minimise civilian harm raises serious concerns regarding compliance with international humanitarian law
According to the Houthi-led administration's Ministry of Interior, the centre was supervised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This suggests that the site should have been afforded legal protection, given that its use for military purposes was prohibited, and also that the site's coordinates were made known to US forces to prevent its targeting.
The absence of any evidence demonstrating that the US military took precautionary measures to minimise civilian harm—as has been the case with other recent incidents of US violence against civilians in Yemen—raises serious concerns regarding compliance with international humanitarian law. In particular, the US has likely failed to comply with the principles of distinction between military and civilian objects, proportionality, and the obligation to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties.
As of the release of this statement, the US Central Command has not provided any official explanation or justification for the attack. It issued only a general statement a few hours before the incident, stating: "To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of our ongoing or future operations (...) [We] will not reveal specifics about what we've done or what we will do."
The approach adopted by the United States in managing Operation Rough Rider goes beyond mere opacity, reflecting a broader pattern of treating the framework of international law as an optional set of guidelines. The US behaves as a power above international law, acting outside the rules of accountability, and evidently considers itself exempt from providing justifications or adhering to standards of transparency that might lead to accountability. The continuation of such a policy reveals the biased foundations of the international order, weakens collective protection mechanisms, and entrenches impunity on a wide scale.
Merely demanding transparency from the United States is insufficient; international institutions must immediately launch independent and comprehensive investigations into the latest attack, regardless of the perpetrator's stance or refusal to disclose information.
Investigating the circumstances of the attack, identifying those responsible, and holding them accountable under international humanitarian law is not a voluntary option but a legal and moral obligation imposed by rules designed to protect civilians during armed conflict. Any failure to initiate such investigations or to activate accountability mechanisms constitutes effective complicity in perpetuating impunity, and further reveals the truth about who the Western-led international legal system serves.
The victims of the US airstrike on the migrant detention centre in Saada were civilians uninvolved in hostilities and entitled to full protection under international law, which strictly prohibits the targeting of civilians, whether deliberately, indiscriminately, or through excessive use of force. Moreover, the migrants targeted by the attack enjoy legal rights guaranteed under international law to protection from all states without exception, including the United States, and not merely the host country.
International obligations to protect the right to life and the safety of civilians apply to all parties to a conflict, irrespective of the nationality of the victims or the location of their detention. Consequently, the US targeting of the migrant detention centre in Yemen constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the relevant international conventions.
The nature of the targeted site, along with the heavy civilian casualties resulting from the attack, raises serious suspicions of a war crime under international law, including the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the 1977 Additional Protocol I, the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and the customary rules of international humanitarian law. These instruments impose an absolute prohibition on targeting civilians or civilian objects and require that all feasible precautions be taken to protect and spare civilians from hostilities and minimise harm to them, even when legitimate military objectives are present in an area.
The Houthi group has clearly declared its military operations in the Red Sea to be in response to Israel's ongoing aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but the US continues to illegally use armed force and contribute to the escalation of violence in the Middle East. This situation calls for responsible diplomatic action, i.e. de-escalation and addressing the root causes of the crisis. Yet the US has chosen military escalation as its sole course of action, simultaneously increasing its military and political support for Israel and enabling it to continue committing acts of genocide in the Strip with little to no accountability.
This conduct clearly reflects the United States' double standards in dealing with conflicts. To the US government, military intervention can always be justified under the pretext of protecting "regional security", while in reality, US violence in the region fuels conflicts, exacerbates humanitarian catastrophes, and prolongs suffering.
The relevant United Nations bodies must establish an independent international commission of inquiry with full powers and dispatch it to Yemen to document violations, conduct field investigations, and determine both individual and collective legal responsibilities for the attack on the migrant detention centre in Saada.
The nature and gravity of the violations committed necessitate activating accountability mechanisms at all levels, including judicial proceedings that take into account the principle of universal jurisdiction, to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable.
The United States must immediately cease its unlawful military campaign against Yemen, refrain from targeting civilians or vital infrastructure under any pretext, and fully adhere to international humanitarian law, particularly the principles of distinction, proportionality, and necessity.
Furthermore, the US must strictly comply with international legal obligations and cease its documented complicity with Israel in the commission of crimes, including the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. All forms of military and political support enabling Israel to continue committing these crimes must be halted.
