Donors Will Retract Aid From Yemen If Houthis Don’t Stop
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Roshan Amiri
- . February 26, 2020
- . Update: February 26, 2020 12:48 pm
A senior US official has confirmed that unless Houthis stop hindering the delivery assistance, donors and aid groups are going to stop sending in necessary humanitarian aid to areas held by them in Yemen.
Reports have been shared by the UN sources as well that Houthi authorities in northern Yemen have continued to obstruct efforts to get food and other help to those in need. The resources are contributed by participating countries that are sending in aid from the tax contributions made from citizens. So this kind of misuse and blatant robbery to an extent it has been reported would no longer be tolerable. Donors are therefore wishing to scale down the operations.
According to the US officials, “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 official said. “The plans involve suspending a lot of assistance programs with exceptions for truly lifesaving programs feeding sick children and things like that.”
The United Nations has already termed the state in Yemen as the worst humanitarian crises the world has ever seen. According to the UN reports, contributors are going to wait and watch for a span of two months before they start withdrawing support.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a major donor, said it was extremely concerned that the Houthis had worsened the effects of the crisis by interfering in aid operations. It has been reported in the past that Houthis have refused to cooperate with security systems like retina detection and biometric scanners which could have helped to ensure the packets and aids were reaching the deserving needy.
Aid packets have known to go rotting and undelivered on many occasions. Some have been known to have been stolen by the Houthis itself to feed their own. The UN is continuing to tighten its noose in order to create some kind of pressure over the rebels. At a recent meeting, the UN Security Council has decided to adopt a resolution to extend targeted sanctions and an arms embargo on the Houthis for another year. Thirteen countries voted in favor and Russia and China abstained because they said the text was not balanced. Further both nations have been against passing on aid to countries like Yemen and Syria as well.
