In a Feb. 15 appearance before the UN Security Council, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg, and UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Relief Martin Griffiths reported that during the month of January, nearly two-thirds of major UN aid programs for Yemen had either been scaled back or shut down completely. They warned that 8 million people will likely lose all humanitarian aid in March unless urgent funds are delivered. Two days earlier, David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Program (WFP) tweeted “EMERGENCY: It is a countdown to catastrophe in Yemen. When we’re out of $, people don’t eat. That’s why 8M receive half rations now. W/out urgent funds, WFP will be forced to do the unthinkable & fully cut rations for millions. Bottom line: these cuts will be a death sentence.”
Instead of a human response to this and other emergencies—Afghanistan, Haiti, Yemen, etc.—Congress and the Biden administration are hotly debating whether to reinstate the designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), as requested by the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo labeled the Houthis as a FTO in January 2021, which Biden then revoked as soon as he took office. Biden himself said January 10, “We are taking a close look internally with the U.S. government to determine what would best serve our national security interests; what would best serve our desire to be a partner to Saudi Arabia, to the U.A.E., to other countries that are threatened with Houthi attacks.”
