Families of missing Yemenis are unable to search for their loved ones due to new fighting.

Hundreds of people have disappeared in Yemen, and families do not know whether they were killed in the war or detained.

Sana'a, Yemen - In 2020, 18-year-old Manif says goodbye to his family and leaves his home in Sana'a to fight with the Houthis on the front lines of Yemen's civil war.

After six months, all his comrades returned to their families, but Menif never returned home.

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More than six years have passed since the end of the list, and Manif's family, who asked that he only use his first name for security reasons, are still searching for answers about his fate.

He is one of hundreds of people who have disappeared in Yemen since the war began in September 2014, when the Houthis - an armed group also known as Ansarullah (Arabic for God's Supporters) - seized the capital and forced the internationally recognized government to flee the south.

"Ten other men from our village joined the front line on the Saudi-Yemen border. They all returned. We asked them about my brother's whereabouts, but no one could tell us where he had gone," said Munif's brother Mohammad. "It would be a relief to the whole family to have a definitive answer on his condition."

It was hoped that a 2022 ceasefire between Yemen's Saudi-backed government and the Iran-aligned Houthis could help families begin searching for their missing loved ones.

Since July this year, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has received more than 1,800 tracing requests from families looking for missing relatives in Yemen.

But the resumption of fighting in July has put the search on hold for many families, who are trying to find out if their loved ones have been captured, injured, killed or simply lost due to displacement or desertion.

After careful consideration, Muhammad believes there are two possible outcomes for his brother Munif.

"He may have been hit by an airstrike and no trace of his body remained, or he may have been captured and remain in captivity," Mohammad said.

If Manif had been killed in an explosion, finding an identifiable body part would bring peace to the family. But the family still hopes for the second scenario and Menif is in the captivity of government forces.

"We were accepting his death, coming to terms with the loss and forgetting about the possible return of my brother. We just need to know what happened to him," she said.

We have heard of a number of fighters who were presumed dead and whose families accepted and mourned their deaths, but who came out alive after years of captivity, so Menif may still be alive.

Both sides have held many prisoners of war during the decade-long conflict, but the number is unclear.

In May, Yemen's internationally recognized government and the Houthis signed a UN-backed accord in Jordan to allow more exchanges. More than 1,600 prisoners, however, were delayed after both sides accused each other of obstructing the deal.

Abdulaziz, 24, is fighting for the Houthis on the front lines in Marib, an energy-rich region in central Yemen. Before the recent escalation of fighting, he used to call his family once every 10 days. But his family has not heard from him in the last two months.

"We are waiting for Abdulaziz's phone call and we don't know if he will ever call us," said Abdulaziz's brother Ahmed.

Fighting has intensified on the front lines in Marib and al-Jawf since the Houthis captured part of Yemen's coast in September and Rashid al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), announced a counterattack by government forces.

Using artillery, drones and warplanes to target Houthi positions will likely mean more people killed or missing.

26-year-old Ahmed believes that his brother may have been killed in attacks by government forces in recent weeks.

"We have not received any information from his comrades and field leaders about his injury or death. But my parents say that Abdul Aziz's voice or appearance is the only credible reason that he is alive," he said.

Abdulaziz is on the battlefield and people are killing or being killed there, so his [probable] death is not a shock to me, but the continued uncertainty is more painful than the confirmed news of his death.

With no information about his whereabouts, Abdulazizmader doesn't know whether to wait for his safe return or begin to mourn his loss. "Whether he is still missing or his dead body is returned, my mother's eyes will never be filled with tears," Ahmed added.

Cristian Cipolla, head of the Yemen delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said that the families of the missing have the right to know the fate of their loved ones.

He said in a statement: "Behind every missing person is a family that lives in grief. "Their pain cannot be ignored and their waiting should not be prolonged."

Two months ago, 23-year-old Ali joined the Houthis' campaign against government forces in Yemen's west coast.

His parents did not allow Ali to leave the house to fight. But because he was unemployed, he insisted to join the Houthis.

Five days ago, the family received a call informing them of Ali's death.

Yasir told Al Jazeera: "We were told that Ali was killed in the war in Moka. So far we have not received his body and we do not know where it is. "The recovery of his body will ease our grief, end our uncertainty and prove that he is truly dead."

Yazid al-Jadawi, research director of Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies, told Al Jazeera that the International Committee of the Red Cross and other qualified humanitarian teams should be allowed safe access to all parts of Yemen to recover bodies, document the missing and preserve identification evidence.

"It's not just about meeting legal obligations. Families may suffer for decades the pain and uncertainty of not knowing. Experiences will be part of how this war is remembered," al-Jadawi said.

Some missing persons may have been detained or forcibly disappeared, while others may have been killed in war or separated from their families.

The Yemen-based NGO, Mwatna for Human Rights, conducted more than 2,000 interviews with victims' families between September 2014 and July 2025. The study reported at least 1,592 cases of enforced disappearance, including 2,120 victims.

The Houthi armed group was found responsible for 756 disappearances including 897 victims. Forces associated with the internationally recognized government were linked to 351 incidents involving 449 casualties, while the Saudi-led Arab coalition was responsible for 65 incidents with 91 casualties. Forces associated with the Southern Transitional Council (STC) were involved in 387 incidents involving 630 victims.

Al-Jadawi said the issue of the disappeared is another stain on both sides of the conflict, which has so far killed between 150,000 and 227,000 people and displaced millions.

"History will judge them not only by the battles they fought or the land they gained, but by whether they showed basic humanity to the dead, the disappeared and the families left searching for answers," he said.