Jemen

The United States will halt humanitarian assistance to Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, where a majority of the country’s population lives, if the rebels refuse to remove obstacles to aid distribution. The announcement, made Feb. 25 by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), came amid new evidence that humanitarian assistance is not reaching its intended targets and growing security concerns by the agency and its partners.

Yemen's Houthi rebels have wrested control of a strategic city in the country's north, officials said, in a major blow to the internationally recognised government and the Saudi-led coalition that backs it.

The UN Security Council on Tuesday renewed its sanctions regime on Yemen for another year, after tense negotiations between the United Kingdom and Russia, which threatened to veto any mention, even implicit, of Iran.

US aid agency said the suspension will start in late March if Houthi rebels do not stop blocking aid programmes.

The United Nations mission in Yemen announced that the warring sides in the agreed to "immediately begin exchanging lists for the upcoming release" of prisoners, calling it the "first official large-scale" exchange of its kind since the beginning of the long-running conflict in Yemen.

A recent escalation in fighting between warring parties in Yemen contradicts their stated desire to peacefully end nearly five years of conflict, UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths said … both the Government and Ansar Allah forces have announced expansive military goals, accompanied by fierce rhetoric, he reported, with heavy fighting occurring in three governorates that mostly had been quiet in recent years.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen has commenced court martial proceedings against air crew in relation to breaches of international humanitarian law, in the first such case of its kind.

Houthi rebels are increasingly arresting and intimidating aid workers in Yemen, in addition to putting up bureaucratic obstacles that obstruct the distribution of humanitarian assistance, according to a new report by a UN group of experts on Yemen.

The UN Special Envoy for Yemen told an emergency session of the Security Council on Tuesday that a recent upsurge in violence between pro-Government and rebel forces following weeks of relative calm, had to end “before it’s too late”.

Since the 2010s, a wide range of separatist movements have represented the main political demands in southern Yemen. These groups are motivated by their geographical and historical origins, backed by various foreign powers, and divided by their demands for independence or autonomy.