By Hassan Hdes,
A Yemeni government official described the torture suffered by Ethiopian refugees who were held hostage for ransom as "horrific and inhumane.”
Ahmed Abdo, the head of the local council's directorate told news reporters, "it was the most gruesome cruelty I have ever witnessed, where one of the Ethiopian hostages had his tongue cut off by the human smugglers for failing to pay ransom."
Mr Albo pointed out that the discovery of the heinous crimes came during a crack down on the human smugglers in the village of Alasilh, where Yemeni security forces under the direction of Defense Minister Ahmad Nasser Ali in collaboration with the local council set up to combat human smuggling, found hundreds of Ethiopian citizens held hostage, tortured and raped by the human smugglers for several weeks to put pressure on their relatives in the Gulf States to send ransom for their release.
The crackdown on the smugglers has yielded 10 arrests.
| 
