One year on from the deadly US air strike on a Huthi-run migrant detention centre in Sa’ada, north-western Yemen, there has been no discernible progress towards justice and reparation, and survivors are still struggling with severe physical and psychological trauma, Amnesty International said today. The organization had called for the 28 April 2025 strike by US forces, which killed and injured dozens of African migrants to be investigated as a war crime, and this month spoke once again to six survivors of the attack who detailed the human costs they had experienced.
Rather than taking credible steps towards ensuring accountability, including through effective and prompt investigations, or providing reparations to harmed civilians, the US administration under President Donald Trump has gutted measures and mechanisms intended to prevent, mitigate and respond to civilian harm caused by US military operations abroad and has threatened attacks certain to cause devastating harm to civilians. Eleven months after the air strike on the Yemeni migrant detention centre, an unlawful US air strike killed 156 people including 120 children at the Minab school in Iran.
The Trump administration’s approach to its air strikes in Yemen from March to May 2025 should have set off alarm bells in the USA and around the world, clearly signalling an urgent need to strengthen measures to protect civilians.
Nadia Daar, Director of Amnesty International USA.
“The Trump administration’s approach to its air strikes in Yemen from March to May 2025 should have set off alarm bells in the USA and around the world, clearly signalling an urgent need to strengthen measures to protect civilians. Instead the US administration has systematically weakened safeguards, shrinking offices aimed at reducing civilian harm, while simultaneously displaying a dangerous disregard for the lives of civilians endangered by armed conflicts. Against that backdrop, attacks such as the US attack on a school in Minab in Iran, which killed 156 people including 120 children, were a tragically foreseeable consequence of a failure to implement robust civilian-harm mitigation efforts,” said Nadia Daar, Director of Amnesty International USA.
One year on, US officials have failed to hold anyone accountable or even to clarify the status or outcome of the investigations they had announced a year earlier.
Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International’s International Secretariat.
“One year on, US officials have failed to hold anyone accountable or even to clarify the status or outcome of the investigations they had announced a year earlier. Families of those killed in the attack on the detention centre in Yemen are still being denied basic information about what happened, remain without justice for their loved ones. Survivors continue to struggle, lacking the means to secure a decent living or even receive adequate medical treatment,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International’s International Secretariat.
“They must receive full, effective, and prompt reparation, including restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, through an effective and accessible mechanism.”
The organization based these findings on an its initial investigation published on 19 May 2025, and follow up research published in October 2025, where Amnesty spoke with 15 survivors and requested information from the USA. The organization re-interviewed six of those survivors in April 2026.
The 28 April 2025 strike had been one of the worst civilian tolls from a US strike that Amnesty International had documented in years. Less than a year later on 16 March 2026, Amnesty International documented another egregious attack in terms of civilian harm, the US attack on a school in Minab, Iran that killed 156 people, including over 120 children. The organization’s investigation found that the USA violated international humanitarian law by failing to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm in carrying out the attack.
Despite this, President Trump and high-level US officials, including Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, have expressed contempt for international law and rules and restraints intended to mitigate civilian harm.
Following the air strike in April 2025, a US defense official said they were assessing “claims” of civilian casualties. But, nearly a year later, US Central Command has not released its assessments, nor announced the results of any investigations so far conducted. On 4 March 2026, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegeseth said that an investigation into Minab was ongoing.
On 1 May, the Department of Defense is required to issue its Annual Report on Civilian Casualties in connection with any United States military operations in 2025, pursuant to Section 1057 of the National Defense Authorization Act.
“In order to stop this deadly spiral, the USA must ensure prompt, transparent, impartial, independent and effective investigations into attacks that have resulted in civilian casualties, including those in Yemen and Iran. The US Congress must also urgently step up its oversight role and demand answers, including a public accounting of these strikes and the adequate and prompt provision of reparation to the civilians that have been harmed and ensure it is not appropriating funds that may contribute to breaches of international law,” said Erika Guevara Rosas.
‘I have nothing left that keeps me going’
In April 2026, Amnesty International did follow up interviews with six men who survived the US air strike on Sa’ada detention centre, all of whom are Ethiopian. All six men described the devastating and long-lasting consequences that the strike continues to have on their lives.
One year after the attack, all still require some form of medical treatment that they cannot afford. While all six men originally left their home countries in search of work, as a result of the US attack, almost all now rely on support from their families. Five of them cannot work because of the injuries they sustained during the US strike. Four have remained in Yemen and two have returned to Ethiopia.
Jirata*, a 30-year-old Ethiopian man, lost one leg in the US attack and now has a metal rod in the other. He lives in continuous pain:
“I have lost hope and I have nothing left that keeps me going. I came here [to Yemen] to work like everyone else to help my family and change mine and their life for the better […]. Now people carry me to the toilet.”
“The US government caused all this and as a result [of the air strike] I can no longer work and support myself. I want them to provide any type of reparation that will help with our life in any way possible. Something that will revive my hope.”
After the US attack, Abay*, a 32-year-old Ethiopian man, took the dangerous migration route by sea back to Ethiopia to live with his family. He cannot work due to severe injuries to his legs and hand which still require treatment he cannot afford.
He told Amnesty International: “I went to Yemen to change my family’s life, but now I made my family’s life even harder than it was before. I feel broken whenever I see their faces. You can see the sadness on their faces. I hoped for a better life, to work and change our lives but everything turned upside down.”
Araya*, a 22-year-old Ethiopian man, who sustained a serious arm injury in the attack, described how the constant pain from his injury impacts his mental health: “If I don’t take a painkiller, I feel hopeless and wish to die. I think about how at such a young age I can’t even support myself and still rely on help from others. The metal rod inside me is very painful and uncomfortable. It drives you insane.”
“The story of these migrants is grim and heartbreaking. Travelling to Yemen in search of better opportunities, they were detained by the Huthis, denied their freedom, then attacked in a US air strike. Those who survived have been left in limbo, with no justice or reparation in sight, nor an explanation for why this happened to them, an acknowledgment of the wrong done to them, or any support offered to help them carry on with their lives,” said Erika Guevara Rosas.
Lack of transparency, information and amends
A year since the attack, US authorities have failed to disclose any details of civilian harm assessments or the results of any investigation into the killing of the dozens of migrants at the detention centre.
On 27 August 2025, four months after the attack, Amnesty International formally requested information from US Central Command (CENTCOM), detailing its findings and seeking clarification on the military objective attacked and the precautions taken. CENTCOM provided only a brief response on the same day the request was sent, stating that it was still “assessing all reports of civilian harm”, that it was taking all of them “seriously” and reviewing them “thoroughly”.
Yet one year later, and despite mass civilian casualties caused, the US authorities have not made public any assessments related to civilian harm related to the attack on the migrant detention centre or any other air strike on Yemen during its 2025 military operation dubbed “Rough Rider”.
Under international law, if civilian harm is found to have occurred in an attack that violates international humanitarian law, victims and their families should receive full reparation.
In addition to its obligations under international humanitarian law, the US Department of Defense (DoD) Instruction on Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response notes that mitigating civilian harm is not limited to compliance with international humanitarian law and encourages commanders to “take additional protective measures not required by the law of war as they deem appropriate.”
Furthermore, if investigations find that there were direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects or indiscriminate attacks striking military targets and civilians without distinction and which killed or injured civilians, they should be investigated and treated as violations of international law and potential war crimes. Amnesty International’s investigation into the air strike found that it was indiscriminate and therefore should be investigated as a war crime.
The USA should promptly and transparently make public its assessment into the Yemen migrant detention centre strike, as well as other attacks in Yemen and Iran, including clear findings on civilian harm and the measures to address it.
Erika Guevara Rosas.
“The USA should promptly and transparently make public its assessment into the Yemen migrant detention centre strike, as well as other attacks in Yemen and Iran, including clear findings on civilian harm and the measures to address it. Where sufficient evidence exists, competent authorities should ensure those responsible are brought to justice, by prosecuting any person suspected of criminal responsibility for war crimes, including under the doctrine of command responsibility,” said Erika Guevara Rosas.
*The migrants interviewed by Amnesty International are identified using pseudonyms for security reasons.
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