Aid groups to suspend support for Houthi areas in Yemen

Aid groups and donors are to suspend humanitarian aid to areas of Yemen controlled by the Houthis if they do not stop obstructing the delivery of assistance, a US state department official said on Tuesday. Earlier this month, aid groups revealed that Houthi authorities in northern Yemen were obstructing efforts to get food and other help to those in need.
“Each donor and implementer is drawing up plans on how to, what to do if the Houthis do not change their behavior on the ground. The plans involve suspending a lot of assistance programs with exceptions for truly lifesaving programs feeding sick children and things like that”, the official said and added:” Everyone’s looking at a timeline of a month or two. That’s the point at which different implementers will start to suspend some of the programs”.
The United Nations described Yemen as the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis. It added that millions of people are on the verge of starvation. “We are urgently working on a way forward that allows U.S. aid to continue uninterrupted, but are taking steps to plan ahead with our partners so they can safely and responsibly adjust programming should we be forced to reduce aid”, said a spokesperson of the USAID, which is a major donor.
Human rights groups have criticised the Saudi-UAE-led coalition for targeting civilians in hospitals, schools and markets, in the fight against the Iran-backed Houthi militias.
Yemen has been torn by conflict since 2014, when Houthi rebels seized the capital and ousted the government of president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Fatal diseases are common in the country because of poverty. Over 10,000 people were killed in the war and more than 3 million were displaced since the beginning of the war.