Yemen: Monthly Briefing and Consultations
Tomorrow morning (13 February), the Security Council will hold its monthly open briefing and closed consultations on Yemen. UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher will brief.
Regional developments in the Middle East continue to impact the precarious situation in Yemen in the context of persistent attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group on ships in the Red Sea and an intensification of direct conflict between the Houthis and Israel. The rebel group has pledged to continue its assaults until Israel ends its military campaign in Gaza, which followed the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack against Israel. The deteriorating security environment has stalled progress on a political resolution to the Yemeni conflict and has continued to exacerbate the country’s dire humanitarian situation.
Following the Israel-Hamas ceasefire that went into effect on 19 January, the Houthis announced that they would restrict their attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea to ships with links to Israel, and that they would cease their attacks completely upon the full implementation of all phases of the ceasefire agreement. Tomorrow, Council members may call on the Houthis to continue avoiding hostilities in the Red Sea, underscoring the importance of freedom of navigation in upholding maritime security and trade. Members may place particular emphasis on this point in light of recent announcements from both Hamas and Israel underscoring the fragility of the Gaza ceasefire.
The detainees held by the Houthis are among other recent developments that are likely to be discussed tomorrow. On 22 January, the group released the crew of the MV Galaxy Leader, a Japanese-operated ship affiliated with an Israeli businessman, whom the group had detained in November 2023 as a response to the war in Gaza. Council members may welcome the crew’s release as a positive development, although it has been largely overshadowed by the Houthi’s detention of seven UN personnel on 23 January. On 10 February, one of those detainees—a World Food Programme (WFP) staff member—died in detention. The Secretary-General issued a statement on 11 February strongly condemning this death, which he described as a “deplorable tragedy”, and calling for an immediate, transparent, and thorough investigation into the circumstances leading to it. Grundberg, Fletcher, and several Council members are expected to echo these messages tomorrow.
Fletcher is also expected to brief the Council on the decision announced by the UN on 10 February to temporarily pause all operations and programmes in Yemen’s Sa’ada governate, where six of the recently detained personnel were working. According to Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq, this measure was taken in response to the continued detention of UN personnel by the Houthis, which has eroded the “necessary security conditions and guarantees” for UN operations to continue in Sa’ada. The pause is intended to allow the Houthis and the UN to arrange the release of UN detainees and ensure the necessary conditions for the delivery of critical humanitarian aid. Tomorrow, Council members are likely to stress the need to respect the safety and security of UN and humanitarian personnel and call on the Houthis to immediately and unconditionally release all remaining UN and humanitarian personnel.
On the political front, Grundberg may recount the challenges that remain in creating a roadmap under UN auspices for advancing an inclusive political process in Yemen. He may note that despite the ceasefire in Gaza, recent destabilising developments—including the detention of UN personnel, the internationalisation of the Yemeni conflict, and escalatory rhetoric—have had an adverse impact on dialogue and continue to impede steps towards a nationwide ceasefire between the parties. In closed consultations with Security Council members on 15 January, Grundberg apparently informed members that although the parties remain committed to establishing a roadmap the situation remains challenging and that a successful peace process requires the full support of the international community and unity from the Security Council. (For more information, see our 14 January 2025 What’s In Blue story and the brief on Yemen in our February 2025 Monthly Forecast.) In their statements tomorrow, Council members may call on the parties to de-escalate and urgently resume progress towards a Yemeni-owned political process, as well as express their support for Grundberg’s efforts towards that end.
Tomorrow’s meeting is also expected to focus on the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen. Fletcher may highlight key figures from the 2025 Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP), which the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published in January. He is likely to stress that the humanitarian situation has deteriorated since last year, with an estimated 19.5 million people across Yemen requiring humanitarian assistance and protection services, constituting an increase of 1.3 million people compared to 2024. In this regard, Fletcher may highlight that 17.1 million people (49 percent of the population) suffer from food insecurity and nearly as many do not have access to enough water to cover basic daily needs.
Fletcher is also expected to brief on the numerous challenges that children in Yemen face. According to the HNRP, these challenges include malnutrition, with nearly half of all children under the age of five being acutely malnourished; lack of access to education (almost 3.2 million children of school age do not attend school); and vulnerability to the outbreak of disease, including cholera, as approximately 70 percent of children from 35 to 48 months old have not received the full course of recommended vaccinations.
Another key issue that is likely to be raised tomorrow is the increasingly challenging environment for humanitarian funding. Fletcher is expected to call on member states to contribute towards the HNRP, which requires $2.47 billion. Similarly, Council members are likely to express concern about Yemen’s precarious humanitarian situation and stress the need for the international community to mobilise funding towards improving the situation. Some may raise concerns about potential cuts to national humanitarian aid efforts, which are likely to have severe implications for Yemen’s stability and life-saving humanitarian operations in the country.
