A/HRC/39/43 83. The coalition continued to impede the work of international media and human rights organizations by preventing their personnel from using United Nations flights since at least early 2017. Consequently, such independent observers can only take commercial flights to government-controlled areas and then must travel by land across dangerous front lines to other areas. Given the inherent insecurity, this measure by the coalition impedes independent and credible coverage of the situation in Yemen, and contributes to global neglect of the conflict. 84. Since 2016, in areas under their control, pro-government forces have harassed media and monitors by censoring television channels and raiding civil society organizations. The situation appears to have deteriorated since August 2017, with Security Belt Forces in Aden and the elite forces in the Hadramawt and Shabwah governorates intimidating those perceived to be critical of the United Arab Emirates and the forces backed by that country. In this context, journalists and demonstrators alike have been detained for peaceful protests complaining about detention practices and for publicly criticizing military operations. Furthermore, following the consolidation of actors allied to the Southern Transitional Council, backed by the United Arab Emirates, media perceived to be associated with the pro-Hadi elements of the Government have been targeted, such as a newspaper in Aden whose offices were stormed and burned in March 2018. 85. Since 2015, in areas under their control, the de facto authorities have carried out intimidation, arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture of vocal critics, in addition to raids on media outlets in Sana’a. Furthermore, they have blocked news websites, censored television channels and banned newspapers from publication. They have also raided or closed the premises of a large number of civil society organizations. Victims were targeted for their affiliation or perceived affiliation to political opponents or for having expressed their views in relation to the ongoing conflict. The de facto authorities have also frozen the assets, including bank accounts, of at least two non-governmental organizations; in one case, the account remains blocked. The Group of Experts is aware of at least 23 journalists who are still being detained by the de facto authorities. Most of them are allegedly held at the Political Security Organization and at the national security bureau in Sana’a, while others are believed to be in unofficial detention centres in Dhamar and Ibb. The whereabouts of several of these journalists are unknown. 5. Sexual violence 86. New levels of sexual violence have proliferated in Yemen since September 2014. The already limited capacity to address sexual and gender-based violence in the criminal justice system has collapsed. Survivors are re-victimized. New vulnerabilities have emerged from displacement, poverty and indiscriminate violence. Women, children and men are at serious risk of all forms of sexual violence and there is limited space to pursue protection and justice. 87. The Group of Experts investigated cases of sexual violence in the Bureiqa migrant detention centre in Aden. The facility housed several hundred Eritrean, Ethiopian and Somali migrants, asylum seekers and refugees who had been rounded up and detained by the Security Belt Forces. Conditions in the detention facility were dire. Rapes and sexual assault reportedly occurred in various parts of the facility, often in full view of other detainees, including family members, and guards. Survivors and witnesses described to the experts how each night guards selected women and boys for abuse. One former detainee described a guardroom with three beds where several guards assaulted several women simultaneously. Women were told to submit to rape or commit suicide. Others reported that individuals trying to resist or intervene were beaten, shot or killed. At least once guards ordered hundreds of Ethiopian male detainees to stand naked for hours in front of dozens of Ethiopian female detainees as punishment. Reportedly, verbal threats of rape accompanied the punishment. 88. In early April 2018, the Minister of the Interior publicly claimed to have dismissed the commander of the Bureiqa migrant detention centre from his position. All migrants were released by May 2018, but a new facility was being opened in Lahij Governorate. 12