Bab al-Falaj Checkpoint

The Bab Al-Falaj checkpoint is among the major dozens of security and military checkpoints on the Marib road, about 170 km from Sanaa, where a lot of people travelling from the northern governorates must pass through in order to reach the Sayun Airpot in Hadramawt or on the way back from it. This was cemented after the Saudi-Emirati-led coalition closed down Sanaa International Airport. Marib under President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his government received during the four years of war in Yemen many of the displaced people fleeing the woes of war in other provinces, providing them with services lacking in other areas of Yemen, but at the same time it assigned guards who checked the IDs of those arriving in the governorate. Travellers in Marib are subjected to various abuses and violations that may include psychological and physical torture, death threats, interrogation and arbitrary detention, only based on their family names. Some are accused of belonging to and collaborating with the Ansar Allah group (the Houthis). Most of the detainees belong to the Hashemite families that the Houthis belong to. The Mwatana Organisation for Human Rights has managed to document 38 arbitrary arrests and 22 cases of enforced disappearance in the Marib governorate between 2015 and the end of March 2019, many of which had occurred based on family names alone.