A fire that killed scores of migrants at a detention centre in Yemen began when fighters from the Iran-backed Houthi movement fired smoke grenades into it to quell a protest, according to new accounts of the disaster.

The Houthis admitted that 44 migrants, mostly Ethiopian, were killed in the fire in the capital Sanaa last week, up from an initial figure of just eight. Another 193 were injured, according to their first statement on the fire.

Martin Griffiths, the UN special envoy for Yemen, told the security council that he was calling for an independent inquiry.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) spoke to witnesses and its report said that the protest was against water conditions. Up to 550 of the migrants were crammed into a single

Source » thetimes