By: Samir Hassan

When the leader in the Islah Party, Bilal Mansour, left his home last Wednesday, he did not know that it would be the last farewell for his family and that he would return to them as a dead body, where he was assassinated in cold blood by the bullets of death militias in the interim capital of Aden.

The 42 years old, Bilal, with a wide smile that does not leave his face, is a father of three children and comes from a humble family known for being pious and righteous. Bilal's father was one of the first who formed the beginning of Islamic work during the seventies and eighties in Aden.

And because the dictionary of terrorist death militias in Aden is based on destruction, it can end your life and snatch you from among your children just because you belong to the Islah Party, where the bullets of crime and treachery were waiting in front of his house to refer him to another number in the list of assassination victims.

Four treacherous bullets lodged in his body ended the life of the martyr Bilal and assassinated with him the childhood of his children Mansour (12 years), Asmaa (10 years) and Khaled (4 years). And this incident has caused a great psychological shock to his wife, losing her ability to speak for the past two days.

Those close to the martyr's family told alsahwa.net website that Bilal was with his child in front of his house preparing to go to the market at the time when gunmen came and fired at him with live bullets before they fleeing, causing the child to be stunned and screaming hysterically, so his grieving wife rushed to save him, but he had left life.

According to the testimony of an eyewitness to the incident who gave his testimony to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, he said: "We heard the sound of gunfire in the area, and some people rushed to the scene and found Bilal covered in blood inside his car."

He added: "After he was hit by several bullets, they took him to Al-Ssadaqa Hospital for receiving first aid, but he arrived at the hospital as a dead body."

Assassination Victims:

And Bilal Mansour al-Maysari is the number 15 in the list of victims of assassinations that targeted Islah Party cadres and activists in Aden during the past years, in addition to dozens of arrests and enforced disappearances of the Party cadres and cases of raids and incursions into its headquarters.

The head of the Information and Culture Department in the Yemeni Islah Party’s branch in Aden, Khaled Haydan, said that the assassination of Bilal al-Maysari reveals the extent of the great insecurity in Aden due to the absence of the security system and the presence of armed groups that do not belong to the state, which has allowed the continuation of the cycle of assassinations and chaos.

And the crime of assassinating Bilal is not the first in Aden the Governorate this year. On May 2, unidentified gunmen shot the Secretary-General of the Local Council in Al-Mahfad Directorate, "Muhammad Salem al-Kazimi", in front of his house in Al-Haswa area in Al-Buraiqah Directorate, west of Aden, which led to his death instantly.

On January 26 of this year, unidentified gunmen assassinated the Director of the Political Security in Hodeidah while he was in Aden, where he was abducted in front of his house in the Buriqa Directorate, then his body was found the next morning bearing traces of gunshots.

Aden Governorate - which is controlled by the Southern Transitional Council - has witnessed a wave of major assassinations since 2015 targeting army and security officers, political activists, preachers, imams and judges, all of which passed without revealing the circumstances of these crimes or holding the perpetrators accountable.

According to a statistic issued by the Coordination of Advocacy for Victims of Assassinations in Aden, the city has witnessed, since July 2015, the killing of at least 200 cases of physical liquidation, targeting the best men and cadres of Aden, and all these incidents were registered against an unknown.

Among the most prominent assassinations that have taken place in Aden since 2015, the assassination of the former governor of Aden, Major General Jaafar Muhammad Saad, and the failed assassination attempt that targeted a member of the House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker of the Arab Parliament, head of the Islah Party in Aden, "Insaf Ali Mayo."

Obstruction of justice:

Although the director of Aden's security, Major General Shallal Shaye at the time, announced the arrest of the killers of the governor of Aden and the American "Buzzfeed" website revealed the details of the assassination attempt on Insaf Mayo and the parties behind it, justice for these two crimes is still stalled.

Over the past years, the assassination crimes in Aden remained a mystery until July of the year 2019 after the leakage of investigations by the Public Prosecution Office in Aden to reveal dangerous information indicating the name and exact details about the members of the assassination cell.

Among the most prominent content of the leaks of the prosecution’s investigation records with the accused of the assassination of Sheikh Samhan al-Rawi, the involvement of leaders in the Southern Transitional Council in that process and the management of an assassination cell in Aden in coordination with external parties, according to the documents published by the daily “Akhbar Al-Youm.”

And in January 2019, a report of the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen referred to allegations that the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council forces were responsible for the assassinations of a number of clerics, political activists and leaders of the Islah Party in Aden.

And Director of Operations at the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Anas Jerjawi, said that the escalation of political assassinations in Aden is a natural result of the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of previous crimes, as we did not see any actual movements from the de-facto authority to protect political activists and targeted figures or even hold those responsible for the previous assassinations accountable."

He added that a number of those who were subjected to assassinations had already received threats of physical liquidation, but the security authorities did not deal seriously with these threats, which raises real doubts about their responsibility in the occurrence of these operations or allowing them and not interfering to prevent them.

In its statement issued the day before yesterday, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor had called on the Southern Transitional Council to open an immediate investigation into the assassination of Bilal Mansour al-Maysari and all previous assassination incidents in order to ensure justice for the victims, and to provide full protection for all personalities who may be targeted for liquidation or physical harm.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor urged the Yemeni government and the Arab coalition in Yemen to make all legitimate efforts to protect the lives of civilians, end the state of security chaos in Aden, and provide a safe environment for political and civil activity in the city.