How Yemen’s dominant Houthis blackmail foreign aid agencies

Gaza’s PalestiniansUN UN UN have had no friends as fervent as Yemen’s Houthi rebels. While Arab leaders shed crocodile tears, one of the world’s poorest countries fires ballistic missiles at Israel and targets vessels passing through Bab al-Mandab, a chokepoint for international trade. The Houthis’ religious leader, Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, vows to continue the attacks until Israel stops bombing Gaza and lets in unfettered aid. The Houthis rejoice in encouragement from abroad. “Yemen, Yemen make us proud! Turn another ship around!” cry protesters in New York.Few notice the Houthis’ disdain for humanity at home. After a decade of war, the reckons that the humanitarian crisis in Yemen is one of the world’s worst. Over half of its 33m people need aid to survive, many of them under Houthi control in the north-west. But across their realm the Houthis hinder aid flows. They insist that the uses the Houthis’ own list of beneficiaries and lets the Houthis oversee distribution. They have barred access to international aid workers. They tax shipments, sell aid and charge customs fees at checkpoints. In sum, they treat the aid programme worth billions of dollars as a cash cow. “As in Gaza, the risk of famine is man-made,” says a former official. “They use aid as a weapon.”