The Houthi National Committee for Prisoners' Affairs announced the burial of 71 victims of the community college-turned-prison that the Saudi-led coalition bombed in Dhamar governorate in early September. About 140 prisoners died in the airstrikes.

Ahmed Abu Hamra, a representative of the Houthi prisoners' committee, said that the burial ceremony took place in the presence of representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Houthi-run Public Prosecutor's Office and representatives of the National Committee for Prisoners' Affairs.

The Association of Mothers of Abductees was outraged at the mass burial, calling on international organizations and the United Nations to open an international investigation into the cases of unlawful abductions and the bombing of prisons by coalition aircraft.

The Houthis had dug seven large graves, placing ten bodies in each one, without allowing the abductees’ families to identify whether their loved ones are among the death, the association said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Imagine the heart of a mother whose son was buried without her knowing, after he was forcibly disappeared for years by Houthis,” the statement said. 

Judge Abdullah Bakary, the head public prosecutor, said necessary measures had been taken regarding burial of the victims, with 64 other having been handed over to their families. If victims are identified, the ICRC and the public prosecutor's office work together to hand them over the family, he said.

On September 1, coalition fighters carried out more than seven airstrikes on the community college building north of Dhamar City, leaving more than 100 dead and dozens wounded. Among the victims were abductees and forcibly disappeared people held by the Houthis at the location for years. 

An investigation by the mothers of abductees association into the community college bombing found that Saudi-led coalition warplanes deliberately targeted prisoners who survived the airstrikes, while Houthi gunmen shot at the fleeing prisoners.