Yemen’s Association of Mothers of Abductees conducted a two-day hunger strike that ran into Thursday morning to demand the release of their children held in the UAE-supported Bir Ahmed prison in Aden, where seven prisoners have been infected with mosquito-borne dengue fever.

In a statement released on the association’s website, the mothers appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to intervene and hold the prison administration accountable for the abductees’ safety.

The mothers are living in constant fear as the prison authorities have made no effort to prevent the spread of the viral disease among the facility’s 57 prisoners, according to the statement. 

The statement called on the ICRC to visit Bir Ahmed to carry out necessary inspections, cooperate with the official authorities and provide specialized health care for sick detainees.

It also appealed to all human rights and international organizations to press for the release of those forcibly disappeared and their human rights, whose lives are threatened every day.

Meanwhile, representatives from the association met with the head of Aden’s judicial inspection body, Judge Shafiq Zuqri, and his deputy, Judge Mohammed Mahdi, and asked them to file a complaint about the arbitrary detention of prisoners in Bir Ahmed prison. The judges promised to follow up the case.

Health authorities documented 1,288 cases of dengue fever in neighboring Lahj governorate in the last two months of the year. About 100 miles to the northwest in Taiz governorate, nearly 8,000 people were infected from January to November last year, according to local health officials.