Houthis Block 35 Humanitarian Initiatives, Arrest Dozens of Volunteers in Yemen

The Houthis in Yemen are repressing dozens of Ramadan-inspired charity campaigns while completely disregarding poverty and famine levels hitting unprecedented highs in areas run by the Iran-backed militias.

Youth and volunteer campaigns taking place in government-controlled parts of Yemen, the war-torn country’s poor.

Since the start of Ramadan in mid-April, Houthis have suspended 35 volunteer humanitarian initiatives that planned to help out thousands of poverty-stricken Yemenis living in areas run by the militias, Sanaa-based human rights sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

About two weeks ago, the Houthis deployed scouts in Sanaa neighborhoods and other cities they control to monitor youth initiatives that provide aid to some of the poorest families there, they said.

Militias arrested dozens of young men and women who were delivering aid to the destitute in Sanaa and its countryside and in the cities of Ibb, Dhamar, Hajjah, Taiz, Mahwit and Amran, sources added, noting that those apprehended were held in militia detention centers.

“Last Monday, Houthi gunmen prevented activists from distributing food to more than 100 needy families in separate neighborhoods in Sanaa,” a local volunteer, who was threatened by the militias, told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the volunteer voiced his anger at Houthi efforts to block charities that are trying to “put a smile on the faces of the poor and needy and relieve some of their pain and deprivation.”

Moreover, the militias appropriated cash, food, blankets, clothes, sewing machines and rainproof tents that were bound for some of the country’s neediest families.

Sources reported that the seizure of the different forms of aid took place in large quantities, pointing out that the Houthis reroute the assistance to reach members involved in its war effort.