Fire Burned Through Yemen Migrant Detention Center, Killing and Injuring Many

Map of Yemen on the globe, by Addicted04, CC BY-SA 3.0

Last weekend, a fire broke out at a migrant detention center in Sanaa, Yemen. At least 44 individuals died, according to the AP. Another 200 or more have been injured.

The fire may have been caused by guards firing tear gas in the center, looking to break up a protest about poor treatment at the facility.

Most of the migrants in the Sanaa facility–and so most of the dead–are Ethiopian. These migrants cross the Bab-el-Mandeb strait (the body of water that separates Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula from Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa) on their way to seek work in Saudi Arabia, north of Yemen.

Sanaa and its detention center are controlled by Houthi rebels, who have been fighting a civil war in Yemen since 2014.

-KitJ