US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared the Houthis a "foreign terrorist organisation" late Sunday. The rebel group still controls northwestern Yemen, including the capital. The terror designation takes effect January 19, President Donald Trump's last full day in office before Joe Biden is inaugurated president.
UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock warned the Security Council that the US designation will likely lead to a "famine on a scale that we have not seen for nearly 40 years". Data show that 16 million of Yemen's 30 million people will go hungry this year, he said. "Already, about 50,000 people are essentially starving to death ... Another 5 million are just one step behind them."
Lowcock said Yemen imports 90 per cent of its food, nearly all purchased through commercial channels, so aid shipments cannot be enough to stave off hunger. Stressing that the terror designation is already seeing companies pull back from Yemen, Lowcock warned that famine will not be prevented by the measures the US has promised to introduce so some humanitarian aid and imports can continue to reach Yemen.
World Food Programme executive director David Beasley told the council the Nobel Peace Prize-winning agency was forced to reduce the number of Yemenis receiving aid from 13 million to 9 million, and then to cut rations in half because of a lack of funding. Starting February 1, "we will have to cut rations to 25 per cent" because money is running out, he added.
Beasley predicted that the US action, coupled with the funding crisis, will create "a catastrophe" and leave 24 million of the 30 million Yemenis "struggling to eat" and get fuel and medicine.
"In 2020, the United States stepped up to WFP with US$3.75 billion of support and I'm very grateful for that," he said. "But this designation — it needs to be reassessed, it needs to be reevaluated, and quite frankly it needs to be reversed."
Beasley said WFP needs US$860 million to avert famine in Yemen for the next six months, and "we don't even have half that". He said the Gulf Arab states — singling out Saudi Arabia — "need to pick up the humanitarian financial tab for this problem". If they don't, he warned, donors will take money from other countries where it's desperately needed, "which means we're going to have famine in many, many other countries".
Martin Griffiths, the UN special envoy for Yemen, backed Lowcock's assessment that the US designation "would contribute to famine in Yemen and thus should be revoked". In addition, he said, "We fear that there will be inevitably a chilling effect on my efforts to bring the parties together."
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres supports the calls by Lowcock, Beasley and Griffiths for the US to reverse its designation, pointing to their "very passionate" and detailed remarks of the consequences on Yemenis.
On the political front, Griffiths condemned the December 30 missile strike at Aden's civilian airport targeting the newly formed Cabinet, an attack that killed more than 25 people. He said Yemen's government has concluded the Houthi rebels were "behind the attack" — a charge the rebels have denied.
British Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council the United Kingdom "assesses that it is highly likely that the Houthis were responsible for this cowardly and craven attack".
"Only they had the means, the motive, and the opportunity for this clear and deplorable attempt to destabilise the newly formed Yemeni government," she said.
Griffiths expressed "solidarity with the new government, which has demonstrated its resolve to stay in Aden despite the security risks to carry out its duties to the Yemeni people".
