Houthi admits to looting humanitarian aid to Yemen
English - Friday 14 February 2020 الساعة 07:14 pm
aden,newsyemen
The Houthi militia has admitted to looting and tampering with humanitarian aid, after international working organizations threaten to reduce their aid in militia-controlled areas have threatened.
In a letter to the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, Lisa Grandi, the head of the militia government, Abdulaziz Ben Habtoor, admitted that the Houthi militia had looted hundreds of tons of food aid from a warehouse of the World Food Program in the city of Hajah in northwestern Yemen.
Meanwhile, Yahya al-Houthi, the brother of the militia leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, in a statement published by the Ministry of Education website in Sana'a, accused Abdul-Mohsen Al-Tawoos, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for the Administration and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the Houthis, and Ahmed Hamed appointed by the Houthis as director of the Presidential Office, of manipulating aid provided by international organizations.
He pointed out that the United Nations World Food Program sent him messages by stealing 2550 bags of lentils from the WFP warehouses located in Abs district in Hajah Governorate.
He explained: "I contacted some officials there and expressed interest, but we did not find a result of that. A committee has proposed to discuss the matter. If the theft case is correct, the responsible authorities must punish the thieves and compensate the program, or direct their claim to the judiciary."
But al-Houthi says he found no trace of his directives, in reference to the continued looting of aid, and he refused to open an investigation into the looting incident.
He pointed out that the Supreme Council for the Administration and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs does not have any legal status and "the insistence on it came by Ahmed Hamed, the President of the Presidential Office, and his decisions are not approved by the members appointed to it."
He continued: "The Council claims that the organizations, especially the World Food Program and UNICEF, are distributing corrupt materials, and it continues to repeat this claim despite our request from both parties to stop media confrontations, and the party of the program shows its commitment to advise us in this regard, but the Council party is still continuing its allegations ".
Al-Houthi said that Al-Tawoos Council threatened to stop the work of the World Food Program in the areas under the control of the Houthis, in case the program suspended the distribution of aid in Hajah Governorate to protest the looting of aid.
