A US air strike on Yemen hit a prison holding African migrants, killing at least 68 people and wounding 47, the country’s Houthi government said today

The US military did not acknowledge carrying out the strike in Saada governorate, a stronghold of the Houthis.

Graphic footage aired by the Houthis’ al-Masirah satellite news channel showed what appeared to be dead bodies and wounded people at the site. The Interior Ministry said that some 115 migrants had been held there.

The International Organisation for Migration, a United Nations agency, said it was “deeply saddened” by the deaths at the prison.

“It is imperative that all efforts are made to avoid harm to civilians and to protect those most vulnerable in these challenging circumstances,” it said.

Ethiopians and other African migrants have landed in Yemen for years, braving the war-torn nation to try to reach Saudi Arabia for work. The Houthis allegedly make tens of thousands of dollars a week from smuggling migrants across the border.

Migrants from Ethiopia have found themselves detained, abused and even killed in Saudi Arabia and Yemen during the war.

An October 3 2022 letter to the kingdom from the UN said that its investigators had “received concerning allegations of cross-border artillery shelling and small arms fire, allegedly by Saudi security forces, causing the deaths of up to 430 and injuring 650 migrants.”

Saudi Arabia has denied killing migrants.

Monday’s alleged strike recalled a similar strike on the same compound by a Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis back in 2022, which caused a collapse, killing 66 detainees and wounding 113 others, a United Nations report later said.

The Houthis shot dead 16 detainees who fled after the strike and wounded another 50, the UN said.

The Saudi-led coalition sought to justify the strike by saying that the Houthis built and launched drones there, but the world body said it was known to be a detention facility.

Meanwhile, overnight US air strikes targeting Yemen’s capital killed at least eight people, the Yemeni authorities said.

On Sunday night, the US Central Command acknowledged carrying out more than 800 individual strikes in its month-long campaign, claiming that Operation Rough Rider had “killed hundreds of Houthi fighters and numerous Houthi leaders.”

The US is targeting the Houthis over their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and on Israel.