The Houthis and the United Nations, a struggle to manage unaccountable funds!
English - Sunday 15 December 2019 الساعة 03:49 pm
aden,newsyemen
The United Nations says that 70% of total donor contributions to the humanitarian crisis in Yemen go to Houthi-controlled areas, but a survey of registered beneficiaries, conducted by the World Food Program at the end of December 2018, revealed that many residents of the capital, Sanaa, did not receive their benefits from the food ration.
Despite the reports of humanitarian and media organizations and agencies, warnings and evidence that the Houthis stole aid and transferred it to a financial resource for its war operations against the Yemenis, the United Nations remained a spectator or collaborator with the Houthis, as the workers in this sector put it.
Donors provide their money to support humanitarian work in Yemen to the United Nations without allocation or accountability, and the United Nations allocates it and distributes it to its agencies and organizations operating in Yemen, but ultimately, it is at the disposal of the Houthi administration.
The United Nations, which during the past five years 2015-2019 raised about $ 13 billion to support its humanitarian plans in Yemen, says that the number of hungry people who have not reached aid will increase during the coming period, because the Houthi militia did not make concessions in the aid management file requested from it.
The United Nations is stepping up against the Houthis by causing food access to around 6.7 million people in areas they control during the past two months of August and September, but it has not taken any punitive measures against this "criminal behavior" stealing food from the mouths of the hungry, as summarized by David Paisley, Executive Director For the World Food Program, in an earlier interview.
In a letter to the Houthi authorities last October, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator says, asking for concessions on five main issues: restrictions on movement; pressure to sign a restrictive principle agreement; delay in signing sub-agreements that hinder humanitarian operations; and intervention in activities and purchases, And obstacles to implementing humanitarian assessments.
The donor community and international NGOs support the mission and lobbying strategy, including withdrawing incentives for some institutions.
The Houthi militia responded to the message of the United Nations and the pressure of the organizations, but in its own way, as it dissolved the National Authority for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Response (Al-Namsha), and announced the creation of a new institution - the Supreme Council for Administration and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation (SEMCHA).
The new institution announced by the Houthi militia says the United Nations has taken harsh measures even though it came to solve the dilemmas demanded by the United Nations.
According to the United Nations' Humanitarian Affairs Report, Samsha, the new Houthi Institution for Aid and Relief Management, has started to increase restrictions on aid access, and has launched a media campaign targeting the United Nations and some international NGOs, at Samsha and the Houthi media.
According to the report of the Deputy Humanitarian Affairs, incidents of violence against humanitarian workers and humanitarian operations in the Houthi militia-controlled areas have increased, both by assault, intimidation, and arbitrary detention of staff.
National and international staff have also been arbitrarily detained by the authorities and some of them have been informed by humanitarian workers that their visas will not be renewed.
Countrywide incidents of violence against humanitarian workers doubled in the period from August to September ..
According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, over the past two months, 80% of all incidents have been reported in Houthi militia-controlled areas, and restrictions of movement due to regulations restrictions and road closures are still ongoing, disrupting assistance delivery and staff travel.
The UN focal point indicated that the Houthi militia often uses the movement's permissions as a means to request more information from humanitarian organizations about employees, beneficiaries and activities, and interfere in humanitarian activities such as registering local beneficiaries or obstructing needs assessments, especially in Hodeidah and Hajjah, where Houthi forces occupied humanitarian buildings in those provinces.
