The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for the immediate release of journalist Ahmed Awadhah, whose whereabouts are unknown since he disappeared on March 10 in the capital Sanaa, days after receiving threats from a Houthi-affiliated intelligence officer, according to local press freedom groups.

“Ahmed Awadhah appears to be the latest Yemeni journalist to disappear suddenly off the streets, without a trace. This alarming pattern underscores the extreme dangers Yemeni journalists face reporting from one of the world’s most perilous conflict zones,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna. “Those responsible for Awadhah’s enforced disappearance must be held to account. It is long overdue for all factions in Yemen to end this abhorrent practice of targeting the press.”

The Iranian-backed Houthis, who control Sanaa and govern more than 70% of the country’s population, have been fighting a Saudi-backed coalition since 2015.

Awadhah is a prominent Yemeni journalist who founded and manages the local radio station Atheer FM, as well as contributing to the local news site Khuyut, the Jordan-based nonprofit Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, and the independent platform Noon Post.

Najm Al-Din Qasem, an investigative journalist close to Awadhah, told CPJ that several members of the Houthi group had been harassing and pressurizing Awadhah to broadcast their propaganda on Atheer FM.

Waheed al-Sufi, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Al-Arabiya, was also forcibly disappeared in 2015 and is widely believed to be in Houthi custody. Renowned freelancer and regular Al Jazeera and Voice of America contributor Naseh Shaker disappeared in November 2023, with reports indicating he may be detained by the Southern Transitional Council, the de facto authority in southern Yemen.