Presentation:

Ari Heistein
Co-author of the CEP report 
Yemen Specialist and Defense Technology Professional

Nathaniel Rabkin
Co-author of the CEP report 

On June 20, 2024, CEP hosted a webinar to present a new, in-depth report on Houthi diversion of humanitarian assistance in Yemen.

Despite receiving over $20 billion in international humanitarian assistance over the past decade, the humanitarian situation in Yemen remains precarious. One reason for this protracted crisis seems to be systematic aid diversion by the Houthis on a significant scale. The Houthis have established a sophisticated structure to exploit humanitarian assistance for their own ends and prevent some of the aid from reaching those most in need in the country.

Unfortunately, they have encountered only limited pushback from organizations that are funded for the express purpose of helping Yemen’s most vulnerable. Furthermore, reporting on aid delivery by humanitarian organizations is not transparent, which complicates and frustrates efforts to counter Houthi diversion of humanitarian assistance.

What is the scale of the aid diversion problem? How do the Houthis influence the way in which aid is allocated? How can humanitarian organizations minimize the problem of Houthi aid diversion? 

Discussant:
Amb. Edmund Fitton-Brown
Senior Advisor, Counter Extremism Project (CEP)

On June 20, 2024, CEP hosted a webinar to present a new, in-depth report on Houthi diversion of humanitarian assistance in Yemen.

Despite receiving over $20 billion in international humanitarian assistance over the past decade, the humanitarian situation in Yemen remains precarious. One reason for this protracted crisis seems to be systematic aid diversion by the Houthis on a significant scale. The Houthis have established a sophisticated structure to exploit humanitarian assistance for their own ends and prevent some of the aid from reaching those most in need in the country.

Unfortunately, they have encountered only limited pushback from organizations that are funded for the express purpose of helping Yemen’s most vulnerable. Furthermore, reporting on aid delivery by humanitarian organizations is not transparent, which complicates and frustrates efforts to counter Houthi diversion of humanitarian assistance.

What is the scale of the aid diversion problem? How do the Houthis influence the way in which aid is allocated? How can humanitarian organizations minimize the problem of Houthi aid diversion? 

Ari Heistein
Author of the CEP report series
Yemen Specialist and Defense Technology Professional

On March 20, 2024, CEP hosted a webinar to present two new, in-depth reports concerning Houthi human rights abuses.

The Houthis are currently claiming humanitarian motives, more specifically a desire to stop the fighting in Gaza, as the impetus behind their ongoing attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea. However, their own record of atrocious human rights abuses at home belies this claim. They have engaged in a concerted campaign to target vulnerable members of Yemeni society, including women, journalists and religious minorities, in order to force them to comply with the group’s radical ideology. The Houthis do so through a coordinated effort by their security services and the legal system which they coopted and dominate. These are responsible for detaining, torturing, unfairly trying, and then convicting individuals who have expressed perspectives which differ from those of Abdelmalek al-Houthi’s.

These two new CEP reports which focus on Houthi oppression of women, journalists, and religious minorities document these abuses of vulnerable groups and identify the individuals or institutions that are responsible for or complicit in these excesses. Today, members of all three categories of vulnerable demographics remain imprisoned in Houthi jails where they are subject to relentless torture sessions. For example, the last Jew in Yemen, Libi Marhabi, has been unjustly imprisoned by the Houthis for the last 8 years and has been subjected to such brutal torture that he lost all of his teeth, is partially blind, has lost mobility, and is in failing health – at the age of 35.

Nura al-Jarwi, who was herself a prisoner in Houthi jails, provided testimony based on her experience as a Houthi prisoner and spoke about the plight of women in Yemen who are subject to Houthi abuse.