Hundreds of Yemeni Families Search in Vain for Missing Relatives as Fighting Flares Again

More than six years after Munif, 18, left his family in Sanaa to fight with the Houthi forces, he has still not returned. The ten other men from the same village who went to the Saudi-Yemeni border front all came back, but no one knows what became of Munif.

"We asked them about my brother, but no one could tell us where he went," recalled Mohammed, Munif's brother.

Munif is one of hundreds of people missing in Yemen since the civil war erupted in September 2014, when the Houthi armed group — also known as Ansar Allah — seized the capital and forced the internationally recognised government to relocate to the south.

Hopes that a 2022 ceasefire between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the Iran-backed Houthi forces would help families begin the search for missing relatives have faded. Since July 2026, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has received more than 1,800 tracing requests from families.

But the resumption of fighting in July has stalled many families' search efforts. They still do not know whether their relatives are detained, wounded, dead or simply lost in the paperwork of displacement or desertion.

Mohammed believes his brother may have been killed in an air strike that left no trace of a body, or was captured and is still being held. "We would accept his death, adapt to the loss and give up hope of his return. We just need to know what happened," he said.

The two sides have exchanged prisoners of war repeatedly over more than a decade of conflict, but the number of detainees remains unclear. In May, the Yemeni government and the Houthis signed a UN-brokered agreement in Jordan to exchange more than 1,600 detainees, but implementation was delayed after the two sides accused each other of obstructing the deal.

Abdulaziz, 24, fought for the Houthis in Marib, the energy-rich region of central Yemen. Before the recent escalation, he used to call his family once every ten days. But for the past two months, the family has heard nothing.

"We are waiting for a call from Abdulaziz, and we don't know whether he will ever call again," said Ahmed, Abdulaziz's brother. "The family has received no information from his comrades or commanders about whether he was wounded or killed. But my parents say his voice or image is the only reliable proof that he is still alive."

Ahmed said the possibility of his brother's death would not be a shock, but the prolonged uncertainty is more painful than confirmation. "Whether he remains missing or his body comes home, my mother's tears will never stop," he added.

Fighting has intensified on the Marib and Al-Jawf fronts since the Houthis seized part of Yemen's coastline in September, and Rashid al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, announced a counteroffensive by government forces. The use of artillery, drones and warplanes against Houthi positions is expected to leave more people dead or missing.

Ali, 23, joined the Houthi campaign against government forces on Yemen's western coast two months ago, against his parents' wishes. Five days ago, the family received a call saying he had been killed.

"We were told that Ali was killed in Mocha. To this day, we have not received his body, and we don't know where it is," Yasser, a relative of Ali, told Al Jazeera. "Recovering the body would ease the pain, end the uncertainty and prove that he really is dead."

Christine Cipolla, head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen, stressed that families of the missing have the right to know their relatives' fate. "Behind every missing person is a family living in pain. Their suffering cannot be ignored, and their wait must not be prolonged any further," she said.

Yazeed Al-Jeddawy, research director at the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies, said the ICRC and humanitarian teams with the right capacity must be given safe access to all areas of Yemen to search for remains, document the missing and preserve identification evidence.

"This is not only a matter of complying with legal obligations. Families can carry the pain and uncertainty of not knowing for decades, and their experience will become part of the memory of this war," he said.

According to the Yemen-based NGO Mwatana for Human Rights, between September 2014 and July 2025 it conducted more than 2,000 interviews with victims' families. Its research documented at least 1,592 cases of enforced disappearance involving 2,120 victims.

The Houthis were identified as responsible in 756 cases involving 897 victims. Forces linked to the internationally recognised government were implicated in 351 cases with 449 victims, while the Saudi-led Arab coalition was responsible for 65 cases with 91 victims. Forces linked to the Southern Transitional Council (STC) were involved in 387 cases with 630 victims.

According to Al-Jeddawy, the issue of the missing is another stain on both sides of the conflict — a war that has claimed between around 150,000 and 227,000 lives and displaced millions.

"History will judge the parties not only by the battles they fought or the territory they gained, but also by whether they showed basic humanity towards the dead, the missing and the families still searching for answers," he said.