Yemen: Briefing and Consultations
Tomorrow morning (15 August), the Security Council will hold its regular monthly open briefing and closed consultations on Yemen. UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg and OCHA’s Director of the Financing and Partnerships Division Lisa Doughten are expected to brief in the public session. The head of the UN Mission to Support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA), Major General Michael Beary, will brief in consultations.
An expected key focus of tomorrow’s meeting is the detention by the Houthi rebel group, since June, of 13 Yemeni national staff belonging to several UN agencies and offices, as well as over 50 workers of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society. In a statement yesterday (13 August), UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said that the staff members are still being held incommunicado and that multiple calls by high-level UN officials for their release have “fallen on deaf ears”. He reiterated his call for the immediate and unconditional release of all detained staff, a message that the briefers and many Council members are likely to echo at tomorrow’s meeting. Türk’s 13 August statement also reported that, on 3 August, a Houthi “delegation” entered the premises of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Sana’a, forced national staff to hand over belongings, and took control of the premises. Speakers at tomorrow’s meeting are likely to express concern over this recent development and call on the Houthis to leave the premises and return its assets.
The Houthis have accused the detained personnel of involvement in espionage, an allegation which Türk rejected as baseless in his 13 August statement. It seems that the group reiterated these allegations during a 6 August meeting with representatives of international organisations, which was reportedly attended by OCHA Head of Office in Yemen Markus Werne. Media reports quote the Houthi representatives as warning the international organisations against carrying out what they termed “political and sabotage acts…in the implementation of a foreign agenda”. Briefing at the Council’s latest meeting on Yemen, held on 23 July, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya said that the detention of the national staff, alongside “rapidly spreading misinformation and disinformation targeting the international community”, have undermined humanitarian access and programming, hindering efforts to help millions of people in need across Yemen.
At tomorrow’s meeting, Doughten and several Council members are expected to voice alarm about the shrinking humanitarian operating space and lack of funding, particularly considering the deteriorating conditions in Yemen. Doughten may describe the challenges in responding to torrential rains and flooding that began in March and intensified through early August. According to a 9 August OCHA update, the floods have caused extensive damage across at least 18 governorates, with Hodeidah, Marib, Saada, and Taiz being among the most affected. The flooding resulted in the deaths of at least 57 people and affected over 34,000 families, with many missing or injured, and damaged infrastructure as well as destroying homes and shelters for internally displaced persons (IDPs). OCHA warned that the combination of stagnant water and poor sanitation conditions could lead to the outbreak of waterborne diseases and exacerbate the cholera epidemic in the country. A 30 July update by humanitarian agencies notes that over 113,000 suspected cholera cases were documented since January.
At tomorrow’s meeting, several speakers are likely to call for enhanced funding for humanitarian efforts. In a 9 August update, OCHA estimated that $4.8 million will be required to provide support for families affected by the flooding, adding that “as with almost all of our humanitarian response efforts, underfunding is a major challenge”. The 2024 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, seeking $2.71 billion, is currently approximately 27 percent funded.
There is also likely to be discussion about the agreement reached between the Houthis and the Yemeni government to de-escalate the economic warfare that the sides have been waging against each other. At the Council’s 23 July meeting, Grundberg updated Council members about the agreement, which the parties signed the previous evening. According to a statement by the Office of the Special Envoy, the agreement includes a commitment to cancel all decisions and actions against banks by both sides and a pledge to hold meetings to discuss economic and humanitarian issues. Tomorrow, several Council members are expected to encourage the sides to engage with the Special Envoy in order to implement the agreement and to use the momentum of this process to refocus on a broader political process.
Grundberg may also update Council members about a 28 July meeting organised by his office in cooperation with UN Women in Yemen with 70 representatives of diverse segments of Yemeni society. This meeting, the fourth of its kind, is part of the offices’ effort to develop a “bottom-up vision for inclusive peace” in preparation for an inclusive peace process. A statement by the Office of the Special Envoy noted that the meeting included discussions on such issues as economic and security measures, humanitarian needs, and de-escalation strategies. Participants at the meeting emphasised “the importance of women’s full and meaningful participation to ensure the sustainability of peaceful solutions”, according to the statement.
Several speakers at tomorrow’s meeting are expected to express concern about the destabilising effects on Yemen of regional tensions. Mediation efforts to develop a UN roadmap for an inter-Yemeni peace process have been frozen for months in light of the Houthis’ ongoing attacks against commercial vessels in the Red Sea, which the group has threatened to continue until Israel ends its military campaign in Gaza.
Last month’s regular Yemen meeting took place a day after the Council held a meeting which discussed the Houthis’ 19 July drone attack targeting the city of Tel Aviv, Israel, and Israel’s 20 July retaliatory strikes in and around the Hodeidah Port in Yemen. (For background, see our 22 July What’s in Blue story.) Council members are closely following developments following the 31 July assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran. While Israel neither claimed nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh’s killing, it had reportedly pledged to kill Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders over the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks. Iran and Hamas accuse Israel of Haniyeh’s assassination, with Iran stating in a 31 July letter to the Security Council that it will “respond decisively and promptly”. The announced retaliation is yet to take place, however, with the Permanent Mission of Iran to the UN in New York recently saying that its “response will be timed and conducted in a manner not to the detriment” of ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
The Houthis, which are aligned with Iran, reportedly participated in Iran’s 14 April airborne attack against Israel, carried out in retaliation for Israel’s 1 April attack against an Iranian facility in Damascus. There are concerns that the Houthis will again participate if Iran decides to launch an attack in response to Haniyeh’s assassination. Tomorrow, although speakers may not voice such concerns directly, they may urge restraint from all actors to avoid further regional escalation.
Although the Yemen file enjoys relative unity among Council members, divisions have emerged around the Red Sea crisis. The P3 members (France, the UK, and the US) have criticised the Houthis’ destabilising actions, while Council members such as Algeria, China, and Russia emphasise that ending the conflict in Gaza is critical for resolving the crisis in the Red Sea and preventing further regional escalation. The P3 often accuse Iran of supplying weapons to the Houthis in contravention of the arms embargo imposed on the group through resolution 2216 of 14 April 2015.
