By seizing control of entry points for food, medicine and fuel, the Houthi rebels profit from aid deliveries, starve their rivals of revenue and tighten their grip on northern Yemen’s desperate population, according to an analysis published by Edmund Fitton-Brown and Ari Heistein
The authors suggested that the debate over how humanitarian aid enters northern Yemen highlights a central part of the Houthis’ strategy, and that the 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.
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.
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.
Edmund Fitton-Brown and Ari Heistein concluded:” 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”.