US resumes aid to rebel-controlled regions of Yemen

The Biden administration is lifting a Trump-era suspension of aid to parts of Yemen under the control of Houthi rebels, according to US officials and people briefed on the matter.

The US Agency for International Development, a federal agency that administers foreign aid, gave formal notification to Congress and partner agencies operating in the country on Thursday that it was restoring the funding for northern Yemen based on a series of new monitoring requirements.

“We are lifting the blanket suspension,” a USAID official told the Financial Times. USAID said it had already “clearly communicated” benchmarks for releasing aid to the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels.

The official said new arrangements to limit interference in humanitarian aid by the rebels reflected “hard-won progress” by the community. “The Houthis must abide by these commitments.”

The Trump administration banned aid to northern Yemen last year over concerns that Houthi rebels were impeding assistance. While the total $50m amount of USAID money suspended was relatively small, aid agencies argued that releasing the funds will have an immediate effect on the situation, which the UN has described as the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crisis.

The USAID official said the funds would initially help 170,000 people in northern Yemen, and that more money could follow.

President Joe Biden has promised to make ending the war in Yemen a foreign policy priority. Aid agencies have been pressing Washington to restore aid, along with Bernie Sanders, the progressive independent senator from Vermont, and three Democratic senators, who called on Antony Blinken, secretary of state, and Gloria Steele, acting USAID chief, to reverse the ban in a letter last week.

The decision risks a political backlash, however, given earlier criticism from some analysts, experts and political opponents that the Biden administration was emboldening the rebels.

The Houthis have escalated fighting since the Biden administration ended its support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting them and reversed its predecessor’s designation of the group as a foreign terrorist organisation.

Washington sought to distinguish its political efforts from the humanitarian response on Thursday, however. Tim Lenderking, US special envoy for Yemen, in a statement called for the Houthis to end their offensive on Marib province and their continued cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia. 

Five western nations including the US also condemned the escalation by the Houthis, saying it was “worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis”.

The US state department said last month the Houthis were “sorely mistaken” if they thought the administration intended to let its leadership off the hook.

What began as a civil war morphed into a proxy battle when a Saudi-led and US-backed Arab coalition intervened against the Iran-aligned Houthis in 2015. Up to 80 per cent of the population lives in Houthi-controlled northern areas subject to the aid ban.

The UN says more than 16m of Yemen’s 30m population are facing hunger, with 4m displaced by the conflict. António Guterres, UN secretary-general, this month said the country was in “imminent danger of the worst famine the world has seen for decades”.

Six of the largest humanitarian responders in Yemen said in a letter last year that while they harboured “no illusions” about the difficult operating environment across Yemen, the USAID suspension was “increasingly out of step with the humanitarian situation and the realities of our operations on the ground”.

Rich countries last week pledged $1.7bn for the crisis, $2bn short of the UN’s target. Aid agencies have warned they would struggle to avert further tragedy.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the UN, said in a speech on Thursday that humanitarian organisations in Yemen were desperate for consistent funding and support, and that there was no reason in 2021 that “we can’t get resources to people in acute need”.