On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Committee to Protect Journalists, together with press freedom and human rights organizations, calls on all parties to the conflict and the de facto authorities in Yemen to immediately end the use of enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention against journalists and media workers, and to urgently disclose the fate of journalist Waheed al-Sufi, whose fate remains unknown.
Al-Sufi, editor-in-chief of Al-Arabiya, an independent Yemeni newspaper and website, was abducted in April 2015 from Sanaa, which is under the control of the powerful Houthi rebel group. He has not since been brought before any judicial authority, and no charges have been filed against him.
The statement noted that enforced disappearance is often the gateway to further violations, including killings — as in the case of journalist Mohammed al-Maqri, abducted in 2015 and executed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) on December 28, 2024 — as well as torture and ill-treatment. Journalist Naseh Shaker was abducted from Aden in 2023 and forcibly disappeared for nearly a year, before it later emerged he had been subjected to detention, torture, and cruel and degrading treatment.