Activists and relatives of around 90 Yemeni detainees held in Guantanamo Bay have protested outside the US embassy in the capital in Sanaa to demand the prisoners’ release after more than a decade in detention.

Rights activist and protester Abdel-Rahman Barman said during Monday’s demonstration that conditions at the prison were “very poor” and that at least two of the men there were on hunger strike.

Yemenis make up the largest contingent of the 166 detainees held at the US naval base in Cuba.

Most were detained in Afghanistan following the 2001 US invasion.

An embassy employee was seen accepting a letter from relatives of the detainees who protested. The embassy could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Yemeni detainees are among some 33 prisoners whom the US military says went on hunger strike, including three who were hospitalised for dehydration.

The prisoners say that they have been denied water and that the air conditioning was being kept frigid to punish them during a hunger strike. The military disputes the claims and says prisoners are also offered bottled water.

The largest of Guantanamo’s hunger strikes began in the summer of 2005 and reached a peak of around 131 prisoners, when the facility held about 500 detainees.

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