The Abductees’ Mothers Association is following with deep concern the continued enforced disappearance of Dr. Ashwaq Suleiman Al-Shamiri, who was abducted at dawn on November 25, 2025, by an armed group affiliated with the Houthi group from her home in the Madhbah neighborhood in the Capital, Sana’a, and taken to an unknown location.
The family of the academic, Al-Shamiri, has been living in a state of ongoing distress and anxiety amid a complete lack of information about her, while all authorities have refused to disclose her place of detention. The disappearance of academic Ashwaq Suleiman Al-Shamiri and her deprivation of communication with her family constitute a grave violation of human rights. This is explicitly prohibited under the international convention for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance, which affirms that any secret detention or denial of the fate or whereabouts of a detained person is a crime that is not subject to a statute of limitations. It also constitutes a violation of the right to liberty and personal security as stipulated in the international covenant on civil and political rights.
We, at the Abductees’ Mothers Association, condemn the continued abduction of academic Ashwaq Al-Shamiri and denounce the violations she has been subjected to, from the raid on her home and her abduction to her transfer to an unknown location and her complete disappearance, without any respect for Yemeni social customs and traditions, let alone the law. We hold the Houthi group fully responsible for the life and safety of academic Ashwaq Al-Shamiri. We demand the immediate disclosure of her fate and place of detention, that she be allowed to communicate with her family, and that she be released immediately.
We call on the international community to stand firm and exert pressure on the Houthi group to stop these ongoing violations, to open an investigation into the storming of her home and her enforced disappearance, and to hold those responsible accountable. The continuation of the policy of enforced disappearance not only threatens victims and their families, but also undermines the foundations of justice and the rule of law, especially as consultations on the release of detainees continue in the Sultanate of Oman.
Freedom for academic Ashwaq Suleiman Al-Shamiri,
and freedom for every abductee and forcibly disappeared person.
Issued by the Abductees’ Mothers Association.
6/March/2026