Yemen: After a decade, the people of Aden and the occupied southern provinces found themselves imprisoned in secret jails and tightly sealed cells, a gift brought by the occupiers to the residents of these regions.

Secret prisons are the only project that the Emirati-Saudi-American occupation offers to revive and develop the provinces under its control. Both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi excel at suppressing and terrorizing anyone opposing foreign presence and rejecting the systematic destruction plan of the country. This was revealed by the second Achal Million Man March, which took place in the Zinjibar district of the occupied Abyan province last Saturday, demanding the disclosure of the fate of hundreds of kidnapped and forcibly disappeared individuals in UAE and Southern Transitional Council (STC) prisons.

In response to the call made by the so-called Preparatory Committee for the Achal Million Man March a few days ago, thousands of residents from Aden and the Lahj tribes gathered to participate in the event, standing in solidarity with the Ja’adana tribe, demanding the disclosure of the fate of their kidnapped son, Colonel Ali Achal Al-Ja’adani, who has been missing since mid-June in the UAE’s prisons in Aden.

The attendance was not limited to Aden, Lahj, and Abyan, but also saw the presence of the Shabwa tribes, highlighting the great injustice suffered by the people of the occupied southern and eastern provinces due to human rights violations and severe crimes committed by the UAE occupation, including the forced disappearance of hundreds of individuals in secret prisons, where they have been subjected to psychological and physical torture without any revelation of their fate.

The large turnout of people from the occupied provinces participating in the second Achal Million Man March in Zinjibar, Abyan, demonstrated the strong popular unity and alignment to confront the Emirati occupation and the STC militias, standing against the extreme oppression that has gone too far.

During the mass event, participants raised photos of the kidnapped Ali Achal Al-Ja’adani, amid widespread participation from the families and relatives of those kidnapped and forcibly disappeared in the UAE and STC prisons for years.

The second Achal Million Man March on Saturday followed the suppression of participants in the first march, which was held in Aden at the beginning of August, where Emirati occupation mercenaries fired live ammunition at the participants and prevented people from other provinces from entering Aden to participate in the march.

Crimes of the UAE Occupation Acknowledged Internationally

The Emirati-Saudi occupation continues to tighten its grip on Aden and the southeastern provinces by committing crimes and establishing secret prisons in places like Hadhramaut, Azan in Shabwa, Abyan, Lahj, Mokha, and Al-Khokha on the western coast. These locations, along with others such as the old Salah al-Din Airport in Aden and the Riyan Airport in Mukalla, which is Yemen's third-largest airport and one of its most vital economic locations, have been emptied of their original functions and turned into sites for committing the worst crimes of torture and violations.

Over the past years, numerous international human rights reports have shed light on the crimes and violations committed by the UAE in the occupied southern provinces, most notably the secret prisons housing hundreds of forcibly detained individuals. Abu Dhabi has refused to transfer them to prosecution or courts, exploiting the complicity of the mercenary government and the absence of any semblance of the state, along with the breakdown of security and administrative order.

After occupying Aden and the southern regions, the UAE occupation has made efforts to establish secret prisons for hundreds of citizens opposing it, under the pretext of fighting terrorism. It also funded and supported militias under various names, such as the "Security Belt," "Hadhrami Elite," and "Shabwani Elite," which helped manage these notorious prisons.

According to international human rights reports, Abu Dhabi has set up dozens of secret prisons through its mercenaries, such as the "Giants Brigades" on the western coast and the "Security Belt" in Aden, Abyan, and Lahj, along with the "Shabwani Elite" and the "Hadhrami Elite."

Among the most notorious secret prisons linked to the UAE occupation, as revealed by international reports, are those in the Bir Ahmed area, the central prison, and the criminal investigation department. In Aden, there is also the Al-Jalaa Camp, which belongs to the First Support and Reinforcement Brigade, affiliated with the so-called Transitional Council, located in the Al-Buraiqa district. Within the camp, there are at least two places where detainees are held forcibly: one is a tin building, and the other is an underground cellar, according to international reports. There is also a secret prison inside the coalition's aggression camp.

The French newspaper Le Monde previously revealed the existence of a secret prison inside the Balhaf gas facility in Shabwa province, which the UAE occupation turned into a military base in mid-2017.

The newspaper reported testimonies from Yemeni citizens confirming that they had been subjected to brutal torture in one of the UAE’s secret prisons in Al-Khoukha, controlled by the "Ninth Giants Brigade" and traitor Tariq Afash.

In a secret prison in the Al-Rawa' area of Khanfar district in Abyan province, detainees are subjected to the most horrific methods of torture by Emirati investigators and STC militias, being forced to drink urine, beaten with hammers, and sexually tortured, according to the Guardian newspaper.

One of the abducted and forcibly detained individuals in the Bir Ahmed secret prisons in the occupied city of Aden managed to draw illustrations of the torture methods inside the prison after smuggling them outside the detention facility. These illustrations, obtained by local and international media outlets and human rights organizations, revealed that sexual violence is the primary tool used by Emirati officers to punish prisoners and extract confessions from them