Jemen

The UN Secretary-General has expressed grave concern over US airstrikes in and around Yemen’s port of Ra’s Isa this week, which reportedly resulted in scores of civilian casualties. At least five humanitarian workers were said to be among those injured, and significant damage was reported to port infrastructure. There are also fears of oil leaks into the Red Sea, raising environmental concerns.

Renewed violence between the U.S. and the Houthis in Yemen has brought a sudden end to the short-lived calm in the Red Sea during the Gaza ceasefire. The end of the truce threatens a dangerous escalation, not just in these waters but in the region writ large.  

After several years of fragile truce, there is a “palpable” fear of a return to all-out war in Yemen, said Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen Hans Grundberg on Thursday, briefing the Security Council. The “current trajectory is deeply concerning,” he told ambassadors, updating them on the latest political developments in the country, where Houthi rebels – formally known as Ansar Allah – have been battling Government forces backed by a Saudi-led coalition, for more than a decade.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels freed 153 “conflict-related” prisoners on Saturday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said, as a ceasefire largely holds after years of war. 

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday re-designated Yemen's Houthi movement, known formally as Ansar Allah, as a "foreign terrorist organization," the White House said. The move will impose harsher economic penalties than the Biden administration had applied to the Iran-aligned group in response to its attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and against U.S. warships defending the critical maritime chokepoint.

The conflict in Yemen has become increasingly internationalized, with the escalating cycle of strikes and counter-strikes hindering the prospects of peace, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, warning that the improved security conditions for civilians that have existed since the 2022 truce could be lost.

A senior UN official appealed on Monday for an end to the hostilities between Israel and Houthi rebels in Yemen which have taken “an escalatory turn” in recent weeks. 

A series of intense Israeli airstrikes shook Yemen’s rebel-held capital and a port city early Thursday and killed at least nine people, officials said, shortly after a Houthi missile targeted central Israel. Thursday’s strikes risk further escalating conflict with the Iranian-backed Houthis, whose attacks on the Red Sea corridor have drastically impacted global shipping.

Peace is possible in Yemen, and continued support from the international community is essential to achieve it, the UN Special Envoy for the country told the Security Council on Wednesday. … He said Houthi activity in the Red Sea, and attacks on Israel, remain ongoing, and the United States and the United Kingdom continue to launch airstrikes in response. “These developments, which have persisted over the course of the year, have shrunk the space for my mediation efforts,” he said.

The Security Council today decided to renew for 12 months a travel ban and assets freeze imposed on certain designated individuals and entities in Yemen and to extend for 13 months the mandate of the Panel of Experts tasked with assisting the Council’s Yemen Sanctions Committee.