RIYADH — The Arab Coalition announced on Tuesday that it has facilitated the flight of 160 African migrants from Yemen.

Arab coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Maliki said the operation was sponsored by the United Nations and coordinated with the legitimate Yemeni government.

The flight is part of the humanitarian efforts exerted by the coalition, he stressed, while accusing the Iran-backed Houthi militias of committing a grave crime against migrants in Sanaa.

Earlier on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch held the Houthis responsible for starting the March 7 blaze that killed dozens of migrants at a holding facility in the capital.

"Scores of migrants burned to death in Yemen on March 7, 2021, after Houthi security forces launched unidentified projectiles into an immigration detention center in Sanaa, causing a fire," HRW said in a statement.

It said inmates — most of them Ethiopian migrants — had been protesting against overcrowding when camp guards rounded up hundreds of them into a hangar and fired two projectiles into the building.

It added that hundreds of injured inmates were being treated in hospitals in Sanaa where a "heavy security presence" had posed problems for humanitarian agencies. — SG