In the days after Israel’s deadly airstrikes on a meeting of Houthi leaders in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, rumors began circulating that injured Houthi officials had been flown out of the country by United Nations aircraft for medical treatment.
The UN’s Yemen office issued an official denial, while Yemen’s internationally recognized government, based in the south, expressed doubts about the UN’s statement and called for transparency and an investigation into these flights.
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(Photo: Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP)
Aid routes as a tool of power
The debate over how humanitarian aid enters northern Yemen highlights a central part of the Houthis’ strategy. Israeli strikes on Houthi-controlled airports and ports have disrupted not only supply lines for weapons smuggling, but also major sources of revenue. Humanitarian organizations have been forced to reconsider how they deliver aid, but according to UN World Food Program (WFP) documents, the Houthis only allow aid to pass through three points: the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Sanaa’s airport, and a land crossing from Oman (with restrictions).
This effectively means aid can only reach northern Yemen through Houthi-run gateways. Using the southern government-controlled port of Aden is forbidden. Instead, aid shipments must take the far longer and costlier route from Oman. While Aden lies just 300 kilometers from Sanaa, Oman’s entry point is nearly 1,300 kilometers away. The logic is political, not logistical: the ban is designed to deprive the southern government of revenue.
The Houthis’ economic warfare
Since Yemen’s civil war erupted in 2014, the Houthis have pursued policies aimed at crippling the country’s internationally recognized government, headquartered in Aden. The most obvious target has been Yemen’s energy sector, which provided up to 20 percent of GDP and more than half of government income. In 2022, the Houthis forced a halt to oil and gas exports by threatening drone attacks, eliminating $2–3 billion in annual revenue.
At the same time, they diverted shipping traffic away from Aden to Hodeidah. By 2023, Aden’s port traffic had dropped by more than half, stripping the government of another third of its income.
This financial squeeze has left the government unable to reliably pay salaries or provide basic services in southern Yemen, fueling protests and unrest. Weakening Aden not only undermines faith in the government but also allows the Houthis to present themselves as a more resilient alternative, despite deteriorating conditions in the areas they control.
The financial collapse has also made Aden increasingly dependent on aid from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But whenever the Yemeni government takes steps that threaten the Houthis, such as trying to restrict their banking system, the Houthis retaliate with threats against Riyadh or Abu Dhabi. Those states, in turn, pressure Aden to retreat.
Aid as leverage
Why do the Houthis insist on aid flowing only through their ports and airports? On one level, it generates revenue. But their total rejection of routes through Aden shows the deeper strategy: starving the government of resources takes priority over efficient aid delivery to their own citizens.
For a decade, the Houthis have worked to separate northern Yemen’s economy from the south, leaving the south too weakened to function as a viable state. Even when they reopened some roads recently to ease pressure on residents, the overall strategy has not changed.
Meanwhile, humanitarian organizations, managing budgets worth billions of dollars annually, have largely complied with Houthi restrictions. The WFP, for example, has purchased over 200 million liters of diesel fuel from suppliers controlled by the Houthis, even including individuals under international sanctions. Such transactions enrich the group while allowing them to continue their campaign of economic warfare.
A shifting environment
The Houthis’ aggressive use of aid as leverage is running into new challenges. Their recent attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea have made Hodeidah less safe for international organizations. At the same time, shifts in U.S. policy under the Trump administration could create space for a new international strategy: strengthening the government in Aden and limiting Houthi exploitation of humanitarian channels.
The question now is whether the international community will take this opportunity to confront the Houthis’ manipulation of aid and economic warfare, or continue policies that, however unintentionally, strengthen the group at the expense of Yemen’s civilians.
Edmund Fitton-Brown is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former British ambassador to Yemen who also coordinated the UN Security Council’s monitoring team on ISIS, al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Ari Heistein is a research fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and a consultant on defense technology.