Sanaa, Yemen’s capital city witnessed a deadly fire at its migrant detention center, resulting in at least eight deaths and several injuries.
“We are extremely saddened by the death of migrants and guards resulting from a fire at a holding facility in Sana’a, Yemen, today,” read a tweet by the director of the UN Migration Agency (IOM), Carmela Godeau.
Godeau stated that the cause of the fire remains unclear, but it signifies just one of the many dangers that migrants have faced during the past 6 years of the crisis in Yemen.
“All people, including migrants, should be afforded protection and safety,” she said.
“The International Organization for Migration is responding particularly with emergency health care for over 170 injured, more than 90 of them are in a serious condition. Our teams are also distributing food to those affected and we continue monitoring the situation closely,” she said on Twitter.
Earlier this month, 20 migrants died as 80 people were thrown overboard by smugglers while traveling from Djibouti in East Africa to Yemen.
Yemen continues to endure a catastrophic conflict between Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed administration, in what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
