Yemen: Briefing and Consultations
Tomorrow morning (11 December), the Security Council will hold its monthly open briefing and closed consultations on Yemen. UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg will brief. The new Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Thomas Fletcher, who was appointed on 9 October, is expected to deliver his first briefing to the Council. A civil society representative is also expected to brief.
The briefers and some Council members are likely to emphasise the importance of sustaining international attention on Yemen amid continued instability and heightened tensions in the Middle East—including the fallout from the Israel-Hamas war, the fragility of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon, and the recent ousting of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. In this regard, they may call for continued support for the Special Envoy’s mediation efforts as well as funding for humanitarian operations in Yemen.
Tomorrow’s session is the Council’s last scheduled meeting on Yemen for 2024. As such, many speakers are expected to provide a wider overview of the situation in the country in the past year, with some also offering a forward-looking outlook for 2025. In addition to including Fletcher’s first briefing to the Council, the meeting is likely to feature the last interventions on the file from Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, and Switzerland, who will finish their two-year Council terms in the end of December.
Almost a year has passed since Grundberg announced on 23 December 2023 that the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebel group committed to a set of measures to implement a nation-wide ceasefire, improve living conditions in Yemen, and engage in preparations for the resumption of an inclusive political process under UN auspices. At the time, the Special Envoy conveyed his intention to develop a UN roadmap for an inter-Yemeni political process that would operationalise the commitments. Tomorrow, several Council members are expected to lament the lack of progress towards implementing those commitments. Some speakers might argue that regional tensions and the continued Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have hampered this process by limiting the space for UN mediation. Other members might contend that the parties are willing to sign a political roadmap and question the link between the regional escalation and the internal political process.
Grundberg might note that although the front lines in Yemen remain relatively calm there is a continued risk of escalation. He may condemn recent attacks that have affected civilians, including a 1 December drone attack on a market in the village of Barmia in the Taiz governorate, which reportedly killed six people and injured eight others. The Yemeni government has blamed the Houthis for carrying out the assault—an accusation which the group has neither confirmed or denied—and has called on the UN to condemn the attack. Tomorrow, Grundberg and several Council members are likely to emphasise the need to protect civilians and call on the sides to avoid escalation and to recommit to dialogue and implementation of the pledges made one year ago. Some members might mention that children are disproportionally affected by the conflict and may highlight that measures relating to the protection of children can serve as an early confidence-building measure in peace negotiations.
Grundberg and several Council members may stress the need for an inclusive political process. Speaking at a feminist summit in Aden on 3 December, Deputy Head of Mission for the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen Sarhad Fatah emphasised that “it is essential for all segments of society, especially underrepresented groups like women, to have a voice in shaping Yemen’s political future”. Fatah mentioned in this regard the bottom-up consultations series organised by the Office of the Special Envoy and UN Women, adding that preparations are underway for more such consultations that are aimed at promoting “a grassroots vision for an inclusive peace process in Yemen”. He called on the Yemeni authorities and parties to commit to increasing women’s participation in all stages of peacebuilding, in line with resolution 1325 of 31 October 2000. Several interventions at tomorrow’s meeting may echo these messages.
Some speakers may also express concern about risks faced by women and girls, including gender-based violence. In this regard, the final report of the Panel of Experts supporting the 2140 Yemen Sanctions Committee, dated 11 October, noted that conflict-related sexual violence and gender-based violence “remain pervasive” in Yemen, while referencing numerous reports of sexual violence, including as a form of torture, perpetrated in detention against women, children, and men.
Several interventions might describe the unprecedented risks faced by humanitarians globally, while highlighting the particular impediments to the delivery of aid in Yemen. In this regard, many speakers are likely to note that six months have passed since the Houthis detained more than 50 personnel from the UN, international and national non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society, and diplomatic missions. In a 6 December statement, Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated his call for the immediate and unconditional release of all detained personnel and stressed that the arbitrary arrests “threaten the safety of humanitarian personnel and significantly impair efforts to assist millions of people in need”. He acknowledged the recent release of one UN staff member and two NGO personnel, while recalling that the continued detention of dozens of others “is unacceptable and constitutes a violation of international law”. Several speakers are likely to reiterate these messages at tomorrow’s meeting. Additionally, it seems that the civil society representative’s briefing is expected to focus on the issue of the detentions.
At tomorrow’s meeting, Fletcher may call on the Council to urge the Yemeni parties to respect international humanitarian law (IHL), including by avoiding attacks on civilian infrastructure. He might note that respect for IHL and accountability for violations is crucial to protecting civilians and aid workers and to facilitating the provision of humanitarian assistance.
Fletcher is expected to provide an overview of the immense scale of needs in Yemen. He might note that worsening food insecurity is among the persistent challenges plaguing the country. A World Food Programme (WFP) update published on 30 November noted that in October, 62 percent of the surveyed households in Yemen were unable to meet their minimum food needs, a 30 percent increase compared with the same period last year. The Global Humanitarian Overview for 2025, published by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on 4 December, projects that food insecurity and malnutrition “will remain consistently high” in 2025, estimating that 17 million people (or 49 percent of the population) will face severe food insecurity, 3.5 million of whom will experience acute malnutrition.
The overview details other challenges afflicting the country, including a severely strained health system amid a cholera outbreak, vulnerability to climate change, and the presence of landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). It estimates that 19.5 million people in Yemen will require aid in 2025, a roughly seven percent increase compared with 2024. It anticipates targeting 10.5 million people for assistance, which will require funding of $2.5 billion.
Tomorrow, some speakers might emphasise the need to maintain Council unity in support of the Special Envoy’s mediation efforts aimed at achieving a peaceful solution to the conflict in Yemen. Council dynamics on the file have become more complex since the eruption of the Red Sea crisis in November 2023. Some of the Council’s permanent members have exchanged recriminations during Council meetings on Yemen, with the US alleging that Russia is considering transferring weapons to the Houthis and Russia saying that strikes by the UK and the US against the Houthis in response to the rebel group’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea are destabilising the situation in the country. Additionally, although Council members have expressed concern about the situation of the UN and NGO staff detained by the Houthis, they have been unable to send a unified message on the issue. (For more information, see the briefs on Yemen in our October 2024 and December 2024 Monthly Forecasts).
