Each International organization operating in Houthi rebels’ control areas in Yemen faces what appears to be an impossible choice: Either engage and legitimize Houthi control or withdraw and abandon vulnerable populations, wrote Fatima Abo Alasrar in an analysis published by the Middle East Institute.
Abo Alasrar, an affiliate at the Middle East Institute and a senior policy analyst at the Washington Center for Yemeni Studies, found that “ This framing is false and has been deliberately engineered by the Houthis themselves. The pattern is consistent: The Houthis sabotage aid delivery through theft, extortion, and staff detention; force its suspension; and then negotiate the resumption of aid on terms that consolidate their control”.
Abo Alasrar found that when the UN suspended operations in Saada after a World Food Program (WFP) employee died in custody and pulled back from Houthi areas following mass detentions of United Nations employees , the Houthis escalated. Each suspension becomes a new source of leverage.
The claim that populations in Houthi territory have no alternative is equally false. Yemen's internationally recognized government controls significant territory where aid can be delivered without interference. Yet international resources remain concentrated in Houthi-controlled Sanaa, even as populations migrate to government-held areas.
The UN could channel aid through government areas and local organizations instead of reinforcing the Houthi monopoly. That it does not do so reveals an institutional preference for engaging with the established authorities — even when they steal aid, threaten staff, and weaponize suffering.
The Houthis have learned that a crisis creates opportunities for consolidation. Following the Israeli strikes that killed Houthi cabinet members in late August, the group weaponized the moment to intensify repression.
What is even more alarming, however, is that the group’s leadership continues to make the threat explicit. On October 16, 2025, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi accused UN staff from “the World Food Programme and UNICEF” of operating espionage cells that “played a role in … targeting” his militia. “There is nothing that protects affiliates of humanitarian organizations from accountability and prosecution. What those organizations did is outside their humanitarian role; rather, their role is an aggressive, criminal role,” he added.
It is becoming clear that the Houthis can detain, threaten, and extort international organizations because they will ultimately acquiesce to avoid losing access to those in need of assistance.
Abu Alasrar concluded that” Yemenis understand what comes next. They watched international engagement legitimize Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, diplomatic normalization that empowered militias while entire populations were left to live under their rule. The same pattern has been playing out with the Houthis for years. But when the talking ends and the international community moves on, it will be Yemenis who remain, living under a militia the world helped entrench”. https://shorturl.at/6HFen