Radi Ahmed Awad Alayan worked as a porter at a local market in Tuban District, Lahj Governorate. The porters were often harassed by soldiers affiliated with the Security Belt Forces of the Southern Transitional Council, who were guarding a nearby checkpoint. They regularly demanded bribes and extorted money, sometimes taking more than a day’s wages in ‘exchange’ for letting them work. Workers who did not comply were threatened and intimidated.
On the morning of 1 February, Radi arrived at work. The previous day he had been threatened by a soldier, who told him he would be killed if he came back. However, needing to earn a living to support his family, Radi had no choice but to return to the market.
A group of soldiers detained all the workers at the market, including Radi, and took them to the al-Husseini checkpoint. Some of them managed to escape, but when the soldiers began firing warning shots into the air, the remaining workers froze on the spot.
Witnesses reported that the soldier who had previously threatened Radi walked up to him and shot him at close range in the abdomen. The bullet passed through Radi’s intestines and into his spine. He fell to the ground and nobody was allowed to help him – even the other soldiers were threatened with being shot if they tried to intervene.
After the soldier left the scene, a few other workers managed to get Radi to Ibn Khaldoun General Hospital. He spent six days in intensive care, but died on 6 February.
Radi’s father remembered him as:
‘a hardworking young man. He worked tirelessly for his family, striving to earn a living. He was a loving husband and father to a small child, and he lived happily among his family. But they killed him in cold blood and left us with unbearable grief. To this day, I have not been able to obtain justice for him—no one has held the perpetrators accountable.’
Radi was 30 years old. He leaves behind a wife and one young child.