The United States has announced an additional $130 million dollars in emergency food assistance to Yemen through the U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID. This brings the total U.S. contribution in humanitarian aid for the people of Yemen to nearly $768 million since October 2016.
The deteriorating humanitarian situation in Yemen is a matter of grave concern for the United States. More than 22 million Yemenis are in dire need of assistance with more than 8 million on the brink of famine, according to the United Nations. The country has been brought to this state because of the conflict that began in 2015, when Houthi rebels, supported by Iran, seized the capital of Sanaa and drove the internationally recognized government into exile. At the request of the Yemeni Government, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia began airstrikes on rebel positions to stop their expansion.
Not enough critically needed supplies are reaching the suffering Yemeni people. The United States has repeatedly called on the Saudi-led military coalition to facilitate the free flow of humanitarian aid and commercial imports to all of Yemen's ports and through Sanaa airport. USAID Administrator Mark Green noted that the small amount of goods that Saudi Arabia has let into Yemen so far is not nearly enough to address the tremendous need. In addition to urging Saudi Arabia to allow humanitarian aid to reach all points where it is needed, the White House has called on the “Iranian-backed Houthi militias [to] allow food, medicine, and fuel to be distributed throughout the areas they control, rather than diverted to sustain their military campaign against the Yemeni people.”
