Saudi-Led Militants Kidnap 17 Yemeni Fishermen Off Hanish Islands

In a statement on Friday, the ministry announced that seventeen fishermen were detained by Saudi troops off the coast of the Hanish Islands, Press TV reported.

The statement added that the arbitrary detention of the fishermen continues as Saudi troops have handed them over to their mercenaries in the town of al-Khokha in Yemen's western coastal province of Hudaydah.

The ministry then appealed to the United Nations and international human rights and humanitarian organizations to intervene and release the fishermen and stop Saudi-led acts of aggression against them, which amount to war crimes and are punishable by international regulations.

Yemen’s Ministry of Fish Wealth concluded by stating that it reserves the right to file a lawsuit at international courts against the Saudi-led alliance and in defense of Yemeni fishermen.

According to a report by Yemen's Ministry of Human Rights, the Saudis have deprived over 50,000 Yemeni fishermen of their right to fish, killed dozens of them, targeted 93 fishing facilities and destroyed 4,586 boats.

Hudaydah, a lifeline for millions of Yemenis, has seen some of the heaviest fighting in the four-year Saudi aggression against the impoverished nation.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past four and a half years.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.