Calls for international probe into fire at Sanaa detention centre

A blaze that tore through a migrant detention centre in Yemen’s capital killed dozens of people, mostly Ethiopians.

A leader of the Ethiopian community in Yemen’s capital has called for an international investigation into a fire that killed at least 44 people, mostly Ethiopian migrants, as it tore through a detention centre last week. In a news conference in Sanaa, Othman Gilto on Saturday blamed “negligence” by the Houthi rebels who control the capital, as well as the United Nations, which has aid agencies present in Yemen. The fire also injured more than 200 people, he said. Some 900 migrants, mostly from Ethiopia, were held at the facility – including 350 inside a warehouse – when the blaze took place on Sunday, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). That was three times the facility’s capacity, it added.