The Iran-backed Houthi militia has launched a sweeping campaign of arrests in Yemen's western Hodeidah Governorate, abducting over eight journalists and media professionals. The National Organization of Yemeni Journalists "Sada" announced Saturday that the Houthi group carried out these wide-ranging detentions in recent days.

Sada's "Legal Protection for Journalists" team documented eight cases of abduction and enforced disappearance between Wednesday and Friday evening, describing the acts as a "systematic crime." Among those confirmed abducted are Walid Ali Ghaleb, Deputy Head of the Journalists Syndicate in Hodeidah, and former Reuters photographer Abdul Jabbar Ali Saleh Ziyad, alongside six other journalists and photojournalists. Sada also reported that additional journalists were taken, but their names are being withheld at their families' request.

The organization condemned the abductions as a "blatant assault" on press freedom and an "existential threat" to media in Yemen. Sada holds the Houthi group fully responsible for the detainees' safety and lives, drawing parallels to the 2015 abduction of nine journalists in Sanaa.

Sada emphasized these actions violate Yemeni and international law, including the Geneva Conventions. The organization demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all abducted journalists, urging the international community, including the UN and human rights bodies, to condemn these "crimes" and pressure the Houthi group to cease its repression of the Yemeni press. Journalists, Sada affirmed, will continue their mission to expose the truth, asserting that these crimes will not be forgotten.