Houthi rebel forces in Yemen have closed down dozens of non-governmental organisations and detained activists affiliated with a rival political party, according to a US-based rights group.  Many of the organisations were closed for their perceived connections to Islah, a rival political party, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a press release on Sunday.

HRW also said the Houthis had detained more than 100 Islah party members and activists.  At least 33 NGOs in the capital Sanaa have been closed since September 2014, according to statistics provided to the rights group by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Since March, a Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Iranian-allied Houthis. “The Houthis’ closure of organisations comes in the midst of a campaign of arrests and enforced disappearances of activists, political opposition figures and journalists,” Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director, said in the statement.

“This is one more repressive Houthi tactic to close down democratic space in the areas they control.” Hussain al-Bukhaiti, a pro-Houthi activist in Sanaa, told Al Jazeera that the organisations closed belonged to Islah but that they were being used as weapons depots for groups fighting alongside the coalition