UN envoy warns Gaza war and Red Sea attacks by Houthi rebels risk propelling Yemen back into war

UNITED NATIONS — The longer the war in Gaza continues and Yemen’s Houthi rebels continue to attack ships in the Red Sea, the greater the risk that Yemen will be pushed back into war, the UN special envoy for the poorest Arab country warned on Thursday.

Hans Grundberg told the UN Security Council that it was impossible to protect his promising efforts to restore peace in Yemen because the reality is that “what happens regionally has consequences for Yemen – and what happens in Yemen can have consequences for the region.”

Since November, the Iran-backed Houthis have attacked ships in the Red Sea to demand a ceasefire in the Israeli offensive in Gaza. It began after Gaza’s Hamas rulers launched a surprise attack in southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and leading to the capture of about 250 others. More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ongoing military operation, according to Israel’s Health Ministry.

However, the Houthi attacks on ships since November have increasingly little or no connection with Israel, the United States or other countries involved in the war. In the first fatal attack, a Houthi missile struck a commercial ship in the Gulf of Aden last week, killing three crew members and forcing survivors to abandon ship.

The war between the Houthis and pro-government forces, backed by a coalition of Gulf Arab states, has raged since 2014, when the Houthis swept down from the mountains, seizing much of northern Yemen and the country’s capital, Sanaa names and the internationally recognized government forced flights into exile to Saudi Arabia. Since then, more than 150,000 people have been killed in the violence and 3 million people have been displaced.

Fighting in Yemen has subsided significantly since the ceasefire in April 2022, but there are still flashpoints in the country.

Grundberg, who has been trying to broker a ceasefire and launch a political process, told the council that the U.N. had hoped, “and the Yemenis expected,” that by the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which started a few days ago, ‘we would have had an agreement on a nationwide ceasefire and measures to improve living conditions in Yemen.”

The UN envoy said he had also hoped to inform council members about preparations “for an inclusive political process.”

But with the ongoing Gaza war and continued Houthi attacks, he warned the council that “the longer the escalating environment continues, the more challenging Yemen’s mediation space will become.”

“With more stakes at stake, the parties to the conflict in Yemen are more likely to shift their calculations and change their negotiating agendas,” he said. “In the worst-case scenario, the parties could decide to engage in risky military adventurism that pushes Yemen back into a new cycle of war.”

Edem Wosornu, director of operations at the U.N. Humanitarian Office, said positive progress in Yemen following the U.N.-brokered ceasefire in 2022 is now “at risk of unraveling.”

“Food insecurity and malnutrition have increased dramatically in recent months, posing a real and increasing threat to the lives and well-being of millions of people, especially women and children,” she said.

Wosornu pointed to an 11% increase in food insecurity since last November in assessments by the UN children’s agency UNICEF and the UN World Food Program that food insecurity in Yemen has increased by 11% since November last year.

That assessment also found that almost half of all children in Yemen under the age of five experience moderate to severe growth and development delays – an increase of 4% since 2022, “and more than double the global prevalence of growth delays,” she said.

Due to a lack of money, the World Food Program has reduced the number of people receiving aid in government-controlled areas, as well as the size of rations, Wosornu said. In Houthi-controlled areas, WFP suspended food aid to 9.5 million people in November while continuing discussions over who should prioritize aid.

“A pilot retargeting exercise” in Houthi areas has been agreed, and if successful, she said a broader resumption of food distribution would take place, depending on available funding.

The WFP is appealing for $230 million over the next five months to provide food to the most vulnerable families in Houthi-controlled areas, and Wosornu urged donors to act.