Democratic lawmakers have called upon the U.S. administration to reintroduce aid to Yemen, a country that has been plunged into the worst possible global humanitarian crisis.
President Donald Trump suspended US$73 million of aid in March, arguing that this money could potentially be hijacked by Iran-backed Houthi rebels thus preventing its distribution.
Democrats led by Republican Ted Deutch from Florida have emphasized that halting the aid may, in fact, cause the crisis to further deteriorate in Yemen where the majority of people suffer from hunger and lack of medical assistance. The humanitarian disaster has been further worsened recently due to the airstrikes led by the Saudi coalition against the Houthis more than likely having destroyed many medical facilities. Moreover, Yemen, like many other countries, has been seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Democratic representatives have written a letter to Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, urging him to “reverse U.S. assistance cuts, redouble efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19, mitigate the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe and advance a political solution to the Yemeni conflict.”
Democratic Congress representatives have frequently expressed their dissatisfaction regarding Trump’s administration policy towards Yemen and its lack of engagement in aiming to resolve the conflict. According to U.N. human rights investigators, serious allegations have been made indicating that both sides of the conflict have committed war crimes including the “murder of civilians, torture, cruel or inhuman treatment, rape and other forms of sexual violence”. The United Nations estimates that it needs about US$2.7 billion to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
The Trump administration was involved in backing the Saudi airstrikes that affected Yemeni civilians and the President’s military support for the Saudi Arabia coalition in Yemen has often been harshly condemned by both Democrats and Republicans. Meanwhile, Republicans will not join this initiative as they do not believe that restoring humanitarian aid in the areas controlled by Houthis is the correct action to take.
According to a Human Rights Watch report, the heavily armed Houthis and other sides involved in the conflict are seriously limiting the delivery of foreign aid, significantly worsening the already serious situation faced by civilians whose needs continue to increase. Houthis, as well as other Yemeni authorities, have hindered the UN and other development aid organizations in the distribution of aid measures and donors have decided to cut funding because of the restrictions caused by the conflict.
The Yemeni civil war has cost thousands of lives and at least 3.6 million people have had to flee from their homes. About 24 out of 30 million Yemenis are forced to use different forms of assistance on a regular basis and now the population is suffering from malnutrition, limited access to water as well as cholera and other outbreaks of disease. The Yemeni health care system has all but collapsed with only about 2500 health facilities remaining fully operational.
Various international donors contributed about US$8.35 billion in aid to Yemen between 2015 and 2019 which was distributed by different U.N. agencies and, in 2019 alone, US$3.6 billion was spent to reach 14 million people. However, development assistance organizations admit that the vast majority of their time and efforts are spent dealing with the obstructions placed by local authorities.
Discover all funding opportunities for humanitarian aid and emergency projects in Yemen on the DevelopmentAid platform.
