The Houthi group on Tuesday accused the United Arab Emirates of having hands in the piracy acts suffered by many Yemeni fishing ships and in disappearance of Yemeni fishermen, most of them unaccounted for.
The Houthi fishery minister deplored the "arbitrary acts against Yemeni fishers and detaining them in Eritrean prisons."
"Emirati piracy in the Red Sea and abduction of fishermen along with their boats and taking them to the Eritrean port city of Assab" should be ended, Mohamed al-Zobairi added.
"The Eritrean authorities commit arbitrary arrests against Yemeni fishers, in violation of the joint fishing pact signed between the two countries," he told the Houthi-run al-Masyra TV.
"78 fishers have been recently released from Eritrean jails, after being arrested by an Emirati ship in the international route near the Eritrean territorial waters.
"The Emirati ship responsible for detaining the Yemeni fishers is called Abu Dhabi, with Eritrean and Sudanese troops onboard, and chases Yemeni fishermen and take them, along with their boats, to Eritrea where the UAE has a military base," Houthi minister said.
Houthi coastguard forces advised the fishery ministry about a black-colored vessel called Abu Dhabi, equipped to detain ships and people onboard, and sails from the Emirati base in the Eritrean city of Assab, Zobairi claimed.
The Houthi group has formed a committee tasked with the file of Yemeni fishers detained in Saudi Arabia and Eritrea, he said, noting that they "are many and suffer from inhumane treatment."
The Houthi official called on the UN, international community and HR groups to "press for the release of the detained Yemeni fishers, and to stop piracy against them by Emirates, Arab coalition and Eritrean authorities."