Increased repression halts humanitarian aid in Yemen

Last Thursday, the Houthis kidnapped 7 UN employees in the country’s capital Sanaa.

On Friday, they released the 25-member crew of the Galaxy Leader, a merchant ship they had seized in November 2023.

The Israelis are also playing a long game in Yemen, destabilizing the region and bombing targets in Yemen, claiming they are Houthi targets.

Increased repression halts humanitarian aid

On Saturday, the Houthis also let 153 prisoners of war go, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“This step comes in support of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza,” the rebel-controlled SABA news agency quoted the Houthi leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.

However, as of now, the Houthis, who are also known as Ansar Allah, have yet to state why they kidnapped those 7 UN employees.

“The Houthis picked up the UN staff because they are more valuable for negotiating a deal,” Abdulghani Al-Iryani, senior researcher at the Yemeni conflict think tank Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies.

Hisham Omeisy, a Yemeni conflict analyst based in Washington, also believes that the Houthis needed new assets for negotiations.

“With the impending Foreign Terrorist Organization designation and a further squeeze on their resources, they need to play their hands and do what they always do best, which is basically hostage taking and use of force,” Omeisy told WTX News.

Renewed label as foreign terrorists

Within hours after his inauguration on January 20, US President Donald Trump had signed a decree that re-designated the Houthis a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) over their attacks on Red Sea shipping and Israel.

The executive order will come into effect within 30 days, which is in late February.

The Houthis have been targeting Israel as well as international shipping in the Red Sea in what they said was a bid to support Hamas and the Palestinians over the course of the 15 months-long  war in Gaza.

The Houthis had repeatedly promised to halt their actions once a ceasefire was in place. Following the ceasefire Israel and Hamas reached earlier this month, however, the Houthis said that they would still target ships registered in Israel, or those wholly owned by Israelis.

The militia claims it will stop completely once the next phases of the peace agreement are in place.

US wants to hold Houthis accountable

In reaction to the latest kidnappings, the US State Department stated early Sunday morning, that “this latest Houthi roundup demonstrates the bad faith of the terrorist group’s claims to seek de-escalation and also makes a mockery of their claims to represent the interests of the Yemeni people.”

“The President’s Executive Order on designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) recognizes these realities and will hold the group accountable for its reckless attacks and actions,” the statement added.

It is not the first time that the Houthis have been labelled as terrorists by the US.

As early as at the end of his first term in January 2021, Trump had listed the Houthis as FTO.

However, his successor, President Joe Biden, revoked that status in February 2021.

Back then, Biden said he hoped that this move would reduce hostilities in the region and improve the dire humanitarian conditions of the population.

Yet in 2024, the Biden administration redesignated the Houthis as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).

The difference between FTO and SDGT is that it’s easier for a group to lose the latter label. The SDGT designation also comes with fewer restrictions for those who want to support the group in question financially or in other ways.

‘Houthis have gotten comfortable,’ not concerned about repercussions

For Yemen observer Omeisy, there is little indication that the Houthis are overly worried about the renewed terrorist label.

“The Houthis have gotten comfortable doing it [attacks and kidnappings], seeing they got away with it in the past and with no serious repercussions to their actions,” he told DW.

Since 2021, the Houthis repeatedly kidnapped internationals from the UN, aid organizations and diplomatic missions. Meanwhile, they are thought to keep around 70 people as hostages.

“They believe that the UN and other organizations won’t stop their programs, because the rest of Yemen still needs aid,” Omeisy said.

Suspended aid exacerbates Yemen’s humanitarian crisis

However, as a consequence of the latest kidnappings, the United Nations actually decided to halt all forms of aid in Houthi-held areas. This affects some 70% of Yemen’s population.

“To ensure the security and safety of all its staff, the United Nations has suspended all official movements into and within areas under the de facto authorities’ control,” Julien Harneis, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, stated on Friday.

“The detentions mark a troubling escalation for humanitarian operations in Yemen, where access and security remain critical concerns,” Harneis admitted.

Yemen’s population has been bearing the brunt of a decade-long conflict between the Houthis and the country’s internationally recognized government. Back in 2014, the Houthi militia ousted the Yemeni government and took over Yemen’s capital Sanaa.

The war escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led international coalition joined in support of the official Yemeni government.

Following a ceasefire in 2023, fighting largely stopped but the country remains split.

The Houthis control most of the north and west, whereas the south is controlled by the internationally recognized government and its domestic allies, and the east remains dominated by tribes.

Number of Yemenis needing humanitarian aid increased sharply

Above all, these many years of fighting have plunged the population into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Since the beginning of the war, some 150,000 people, fighters and civilians, were killed and 4.8 million people have been displaced.

According to the latest Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2025 by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, an estimated 19.5 million people — which is half the population — need humanitarian aid in 2025.

In comparison to 2024, this marks an increase of 1.3 million people.

Edited by: Carla Bleiker