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Food and life-saving aid are urgently needed for the population in Yemen, but the escalation in the Red Sea is making the work of aid organizations more difficult.
SANAA - The escalating military confrontation between the United States and Houthi militants threatens to deepen the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where aid agencies are already struggling to meet the country's needs.
The helpers warn against this.
The nearly decade-long civil war in the country on the Arabian Peninsula has forced millions of people from their homes, deepened poverty and spread hunger.
Now there is a new conflict - Houthi fighters fire rockets at merchant ships;
American and British forces strike back - destroying the tentative peace efforts.
After years of war, more than two-thirds of the population – 21 million people – are “in urgent need of food, water and life-saving assistance,” 26 aid organizations reported this month, expressing “grave concern about the humanitarian impact of the recent military escalation.”
The children's ward at Thaura Hospital in Hodeida, Yemen, is overcrowded and two or three young patients often have to share a bed.
© Lorenzo Tugnoli/The Washington Post
Big concerns in Yemen: Houthis soon to be back on the US list of terrorist organizations?
“We call on all actors to prioritize diplomatic channels over military options to de-escalate the crisis and ensure progress in peace efforts,” wrote groups including CARE, the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children.
One of the biggest concerns is the Biden administration's decision to put the Houthis back on the US list of terrorist organizations.
That would be an attempt to isolate the group that aid workers warn could complicate efforts to deliver aid in an already fragile humanitarian situation.
Another question is whether the Houthis will allow aid groups to continue operating in areas they control, as the militant group has repeatedly imposed strict restrictions on such groups recently.
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Aid funds for Yemen: “The situation was already very, very difficult”
On January 20, the Houthis released a letter calling on American and British nationals working for the United Nations and other international aid agencies to leave Yemen within 30 days.
The Houthis-run Ministry of Information told the Washington Post.
Yemen is suffering from donor fatigue and is competing with Ukraine and Gaza for aid.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the country's humanitarian response plan for 2023 has been only 39 percent funded.
In December, the World Food Program announced it was suspending food distribution in Houthi-controlled areas due to "limited" donor funding and the failure of a long-running disagreement over reducing the number of Yemenis it needs to feed.
This was a devastating blow in a country with the highest malnutrition rate in the world.
“The situation was already very, very difficult,” said Bushra al-Dukhainah, area manager and humanitarian coordinator at CARE Yemen.
“This [US] designation adds another layer of challenges to CARE and all other humanitarian actors working in Yemen,” she said.
Attacks in the Red Sea endanger aid in Yemen
The Houthis, an Iran-aligned group, began attacking merchant ships in the Red Sea in November to end Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The attacks have caused shipping companies to avoid the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, waterways that connect Asia with Europe and the Americas, making passages longer and more expensive.
The United States and Britain began airstrikes on the militant group earlier this month in what they say is an attempt to stop attacks at sea.
The violence so far, including airstrikes on Houthi military facilities, has been limited compared to the carnage wrought during the civil war that began in 2014.
At that time there were fighting between Yemeni factions and air strikes by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia that devastated cities and towns.
There has been a fragile ceasefire for the past two years, but the country remains divided between the north, controlled by the Houthis, and the south, ruled by an internationally recognized government.
The Houthis have vowed to continue their attacks at sea until Israel's siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted.
On Friday, in an escalation, they fired a ballistic missile at the USS Carney, a US destroyer patrolling the Red Sea, US Central Command said.
President Biden acknowledged this month that U.S.-led airstrikes are not having a deterrent effect.
“Are they stopping the Houthis?
No,” he said.
“Will they continue?
Yes.” The United States and its allies say they are waging a targeted campaign to limit damage to civilians.
“But it is a conflict,” said an aid official, who like others spoke only on condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate situation.
“There’s only so much damage control that can take place.”
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Aid organizations have been trying for years: more than 2 million children in Yemen suffer from malnutrition
Aid organizations have been trying for years to meet the immense needs in Yemen.
They have played a crucial role in addressing the long-lasting nutritional crisis that has particularly affected young people: at least 2.2 million children under the age of 5 suffer from acute malnutrition.
In doing so, they grappled with the demands of two opposing government agencies.
Now they are trying to understand what impact the U.S. designation could have on their work, which requires frequent contacts with local officials and local businesses that could be affected by sanctions.
The U.S. government announced on Jan. 17 that it was designating the Houthis as “specially designated global terrorists,” banning Americans or people in the U.S. from doing business with them, an attempt to exclude the group from the global financial system .
The US government delisted the Houthis in 2021 over concerns about aid.
Some transactions involving food, medicine, fuel, remittances and other supplies are exempt.
Still, aid groups fear the designation could slow down trade and the private sector and worsen conditions for the people they help.
Yemen needs help: “The economic situation will definitely worsen”
“There are a lot of concerns about how this will impact the humanitarian sector,” said a Yemen-based aid worker.
“Will there be sufficient guarantees for international banks, shipping companies and suppliers?”
Yemen relies on imports for most of its food, medicine and fuel.
Aid groups fear the U.S. designation could threaten the current calm in fighting and prompt other countries to impose their own restrictions.
In this case, says the aid worker, “prices will rise;
“There could be signs of a fuel crisis and the economic situation will definitely worsen without a peace agreement.”
The designation could make its work particularly complicated in places like Saada, the northern province where the Houthi movement emerged and where the group's ties run particularly deep.
“When we can barely raise the support and funding for certain activities and we've already committed to the people in need... and then all of a sudden we say, 'Oh, we're sorry, we can't finish this, that is it not easy,” said al-Dukhainah from CARE Yemen.
USA promises continued help for Yemenis
The United States, the largest humanitarian aid donor to Yemen, spent $738 million in fiscal 2023 to provide food, drinking water and other essentials.
The Biden administration has promised to continue its commitment to Yemenis in need.
Officials have described making extensive efforts to ensure that sanctions do not worsen the situation in the country.
An official said the government was delaying the sanctions' entry into force by 30 days "to provide information to shipping companies, insurers and aid organizations to avoid de-risking and provide clarity so that the sanctions do not have unintended consequences, particularly on the Delivering life-saving humanitarian aid.”
Officials chose the Specially Designated Global Terrorist designation over the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation because it allows them to provide more effective exemptions and protect aid and commercial organizations in Yemen from prosecution for supporting terrorism.
“We have been communicating closely ... so that our partners understand what this is and what it is not,” one official said.
“It’s not an FTO.”
Population in Yemen at risk: country needs recovery and development
Despite these security measures, the people of Yemen remain at risk.
For more than eight years, the international community has supported “emergency measures” to keep Yemenis alive.
The country actually needs recovery and development, according to a person who works in the Yemeni health system.
“This is too long,” but without a “peace component,” interventions must continue, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
A possible positive development – the announcement of a peace agreement between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia – seemed imminent just a few months ago.
Now, Yemeni analysts say, that appears to have been delayed by the new conflict.
Communication between the two sides is “underway,” said Nasruddin Amer, chairman of the Houthi-run Saba news agency.
However, recent talks have been “slow,” he said.
To the authors
Missy Ryan
writes about diplomacy, national security and the State Department for The Washington Post.
She joined the Post in 2014 to write about the Pentagon and military issues.
She has reported from Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Chile.
Kareem Fahim
is Istanbul bureau chief and Middle East correspondent at The Washington Post.
He previously worked for the New York Times for 11 years and, among other things, reported on the Arab world as a correspondent from Cairo.
Kareem also worked as a reporter at the Village Voice.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on January 28, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.