Humanitarian aid to Houthi-controlled Yemen may be cut back over risk of diversion – report

The world’s biggest humanitarian aid operation will be scaled down next month in Houthi-controlled Yemen, Reuters reported, citing sources. Donors and aid workers say they can no longer ensure that food supplies are reaching the millions of people who need it.

Houthi authorities in northern Yemen were obstructing efforts to get food and other assistance to those in need “to an extent that is no longer tolerable,” according to humanitarian sector sources.

“The operating environment in north Yemen has deteriorated so dramatically in recent months that humanitarians can no longer manage the risks associated with delivering assistance at the volume we currently are,” a senior UN official said.

The reduction of assistance will include curtailing food aid overseen by the UN World Food Program (WFP), which feeds more than 12 million Yemenis a month – 80 percent of them in Houthi areas. The UN says Yemen is the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, with millions of people there living on the verge of starvation.