Major Development: Houthis to Join Coalition with JMP
The Houthi rebels are considering a coalition with the Joint Meeting Parties, an opposition alliance in Yemen, Saadaonline reported on Friday. The coalition comes based on the united views of the Houthi and the JMPs of the situation in the country, according to the website.
‘Intellectual and cultural views of the Houthi and the JMPs would not be a roadblock to the coalition that comes within the framework of important and the most important as the situation deepens a day after a day,’ spokesman for the militants was quoted as saying.
The JMPs led by the Islah Party has a realistic view of the current situation in the country, he said, adding that arrangements were underway to solidify the coalition.
Related: Dire Humanitarian Conditions Ignored by West in Rush to Tackle al Qaeda
Islam Online GENEVA – The United Nations is accusing the international community and donors of turning a blind eye to the escalating humanitarian crisis in Yemen, while focusing on security threats.
“The humanitarian situation is just getting worse without any doubt,” John Holmes, UN emergency relief coordinator, told Reuters in an interview.
“Needs are great and in danger of not being met because the international community, the donors, have not responded as we would have hoped.”
The UN appealed late last year for $177 million in humanitarian aid to help some 250,000 people displaced by the ongoing fighting between government troops and Shiite rebels. However, it is only 0.4 percent funded.
“If we don’t get some money, the aid pipeline will run out,” Holmes warned.
The World Food Program (WFP) has warned that its food pipeline is about to break.
The WFP is feeding Yemenis in camps for displaced persons, as well as children in schools and many of the 150,000 Somali refugees in Yemen.
The Yemeni government has been fighting Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, in the northern province of Saada since 2004.
Sanaa accuses the rebels of seeking to reinstate a form of clerical rule that ended with a republican coup in 1962.
The rebels deny the claim, saying they are defending their villages against what they call government aggression.
Saudi Arabia was drawn into the conflict last month when a Saudi border guard was killed and two villages were briefly seized by the rebels.
Security Vs Food
The UN coordinator said that donors were focusing more on security threats than the humanitarian needs in Yemen.
“Yemen has been on the media profile because of the bomber, worries about counter-terrorism and al-Qaeda, and the fragility of Yemen more broadly,” Holmes said.
“But very little attention is being paid to the humanitarian situation.”
