US President Joe Biden is said to be considering re-designating Yemen’s Houthi rebels (officially called Ansar Allah) as a terrorist organization, a possibility he mentioned last month after the group claimed responsibility for a deadly missile attack inside the United Arab Emirates. The UAE and Saudi Arabia lead a military coalition that has been fighting the Houthis in Yemen for seven years. Saudi Arabia said its air defense system intercepted a Houthi drone near its southern border on Feb. 10. Aid groups—part of a successful lobbying campaign that saw Biden remove the label shortly after he took office last January—warn that a redesignation would have “catastrophic consequences for Yemeni civilians.” Not only would it hit the economy hard, making it even more difficult to import food, fuel, and medicine, but it would also decrease the flow of much-needed aid at a time when “organizations like ours are already struggling to keep pace with immense and growing needs.” Violence is also growing, and not just around the battlefields of the contested province and city of Marib. Between early October and early February, 1,535 civilians were reportedly killed or injured, more than double the figure for the previous four months.
From The New Humanitarian, Feb. 11
Note: The Houthis were slapped with the “terrorist” label in the closing days of the Trump administration. Biden has cut back US support for the Saudi-UAE war effort, but has mobilized forces to the Persian Gulf in response to presumed Houthi missile attacks.
Photo of displaced persons camp in Marib by Mohamed Ghazi/TNH
Houthi rebels strike Saudi energy facilities
Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched missile and drone strikes on Saudi energy and water desalination facilities, causing a temporary drop in output at a refinery but no casualties, the Saudi authorities reported March 19. Drones reportedly struck a petroleum products distribution terminal in the southern Jizan region, a natural gas plant and the Yasref refinery in the Red Sea port of Yanbu. (France24)