Category: Press Release

Press Release : Houthi Missile Strike Kills 14, Wounds Dozens in Al Thabit Marketplace

July 29, 2019

Houthi Missile Strike Kills 14, Wounds Dozens in Al Thabit Marketplace

July 29, 2019 – Washington DC- The Embassy of Yemen condemns the heinous Houthi missile strikes on a civilian marketplace in Saada, which killed at least 14 civilians and injured dozens more. The Iranian-backed Houthis launched Katyusha rockets at the marketplace in the Qatabir district, deliberately targeting civilians. This is yet another example of the Houthis’ brazen disregard for Yemeni civilians and international war law.

“The Houthis have repeatedly attacked civilians as a fundamental tactic of their war on the Yemeni people,” said Dr. Ahmed Awad BinMubarak, Ambassador of Yemen to the United States. “Houthi war crimes have plagued Yemen since the Houthis began this conflict in 2014. The United Nations, the United States, and the international community must denounce this missile strike on innocent Yemeni civilians and pressure the Houthis to cease all missile strikes against civilian populations both within Yemen’s boundaries and across international borders into Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.”

The cynicism of the Houthi attack was underlined by the rebel group’s coordinated attempt to blame the attack on external forces. This information campaign by the Houthis proves that the attack was clearly premeditated, and the Houthis tried to deflect blame because they knew what they were doing was wrong.

The Iran-backed Houthi militias receive munitions, weapons, training, and financial support from their allies in Tehran. The United Nations, the US Department of State and other international organizations have documented shipments of ballistic missile components, drone material and training provided to the Houthi militias by the Iranian regime.

Embassy of Republic of Yemen Condemns Houthis for Illegal Death Sentence of 30 Political Prisoners, Urges International Community to Act

July 12, 2019

Embassy of Republic of Yemen Condemns Houthis for Illegal Death Sentence of 30 Political Prisoners, Urges International Community to Act

The Embassy of the Republic of Yemen unequivocally condemns the Iran-backed Houthi militias for sentencing 30 political prisoners to death through falsified charges and a fraudulent trial. This sentencing represents an immense violation of human rights and the right to due process. The 30 prisoners are academics, politicians, students, and civilians. None of them have engaged in the conflict or fought against the Houthis.

“Every Yemeni citizen has a right to a fair trial and due process,” said His Excellency Ambassador Dr. Ahmed Awad BinMubarak, Ambassador of Yemen to the United States. “The Houthis have exhibited a blatant disrespect for the basic rule of law and international human rights. There are confirmed reports that the Houthis have tortured these innocent civilians. I appreciate the United Nations statement on this issue, and I would urge the United States Congress to take a stand against these flagrant human rights violations and pass the Hurd/Cotton resolutions condemning the Houthis.”

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNOHCHR) issued a statement early Friday morning that confirmed the 30 Houthi prisoners were “subjected to arbitrary or unlawful detention, as well as torture and other ill-treatment in custody.” UNOHCHR called upon the Houthis to dismiss these “politically motivated” charges and release those who have been imprisoned under false charges.

The Iran-backed Houthi militias have committed thousands of atrocities against the people of Yemen including the recruitment of child soldiers, the diversion of humanitarian aid and the indiscriminate deployment of landmines in civilian areas. At this time, there are concurrent resolutions in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate that condemn the Houthis for their myriad human rights abuses and international war crimes.

JUNE 28, 2019

Press Release:  On the Resolutions Introduced in The House and Senate Condemning the Houthi Extremists in Yemen by Representative Will Hurd and Senator Tom Cotton.

 

The Embassy of Yemen supports the concurrent resolutions introduced in the House and Senate by Representative Will Hurd (R-TX-23) and Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) condemning the Houthi extremists in Yemen for their human rights violations, violence against Yemeni civilians and ties to Iran.

“For years, the Houthis and their Iranian backers have violated international human rights law and committed war crimes with the goal of spreading their violent, hateful, anti-Semitic ideology,” said Dr. Ahmed Awad BinMubarak, Ambassador of Yemen to the United States. “We welcome these congressional resolutions, which recognize Houthis as an international threat and the bad actors that they truly are. In order to reach a peaceful, political solution in Yemen, the United States must remain fully engaged in Yemen, and apply maximum diplomatic, political and economic pressure on the Houthis to bring them to the negotiating table. We urge all members of Congress to pass these resolutions and to support the government of Yemen as it seeks to restore peace and stability to the country.”

The Houthis have committed thousands of atrocities since they began the conflict in 2014. They have littered the country with more than a million landmines that have maimed and murdered innocent men, women and children. They have recruited thousands of children into their military ranks through coercion and bribery, tearing families apart and deeply harming an entire generation of youth. They have diverted critical humanitarian aid and food supplies from the mouths and homes of the needy, exploiting aid supplies on such an extreme scale that the World Food Programme has suspended aid in many Houthi-controlled areas.

Further, Iran has played a major and nefarious role in this conflict by illegally providing weapons, munitions, military training, drone technology and ballistic missile capabilities to the Houthi militias. Recently, Iran has escalated its aggressive posturing in the region by attacking foreign oil tankers and even US drones. In light of these grave threats and affronts to stability and peace in the region, we urge the US Congress to pass these resolutions and condemn Iran for its malign activity in Yemen and the broader Gulf region. We cannot allow the Iranian regime to continue down the warpath it currently treads, or to use Yemen as a platform and the Houthis as a proxy for its violent revolution.

LANDMINE CRISIS IN YEMEN BRINGS LEADING FIGURES TO CAPITOL HILL IN A GLOBAL CALL FOR ACTION

 

June 13, 2019

 

LANDMINE CRISIS IN YEMEN BRINGS LEADING FIGURES TO CAPITOL HILL IN A GLOBAL CALL FOR ACTION

(Group will also be joined by landmine Canine Ambassador “Yankee”)

 

With the war in Yemen now in its fourth year, and over 1000 civilians killed by landmines in the country,  the Embassy of the Republic of Yemen, in partnership with Nobel Laureate Jerry White: landmine survivor and chair of the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery Ken Rutherford; Elana De Lozier of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy;  and Perry Baltimore of the Marshall Legacy Institute,  announced it will hold a briefing on Capitol Hill on Thursday, June 13th to focus on the global landmine crisis.

 

Spurred on by the devastating impact of landmine use during the ongoing war in Yemen (believed to be at a concentration as high as any other country since World War II), Yemen’s Ambassador to the United States, Dr Ahmed Bin Mubarak said, “The time is now for responsible leaders from around the world to come together and say ‘enough is enough’ in regards to the construction and planting of landmines. Innocent civilians have suffered enough. This briefing is meant to serve as a call to action – a plea to the international community, asking that we put aside our differences in support of the greater good”

 

Since the crisis in Yemen began, the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor says there have been over 9,000 casualties in the country.  Casualties sustained from landmines often cause severe economic difficulties for victims and their families. A mine itself costs around $3 to $30, while medical care to those injured in developing nations costs around $3,000.

 

In making the announcement about the briefing Nobel Laureate and landmine survivor Jerry White said, “I am horrified by the war which must stop and the proxy fighting and mines, devastation and famine.” James Madison University’s Ken Rutherford, also a landmine survivor, will brief about the impact of landmine use around the world as well as his  work in Yemen on this issue.

 

Also making a Capitol Hill appearance is landmine Canine Ambassador “Yankee,” of The Marshall Legacy Institute, who will be joined by their President Perry Baltimore. Their organization donates highly trained landmine detection dogs to mine-affected countries and trains local handlers to safely use these dogs to find landmines. They work in 16 countries around the world, including Yemen.

The United Nations states around 2,000 individuals per month are killed or injured by landmines around the world.  Since 1993, the United States has contributed more than $3.4 billion to more than 100 countries around the world to reduce the harmful worldwide effects of at-risk, illicitly proliferated, and indiscriminately used conventional weapons of war, and has invested more $37.5 million in conventional weapons destruction (CWD) activities in Yemen since then.

 

In making the announcement about the upcoming Capitol Hill briefing, Yemen’s Ambassador to the United States Dr Ahmed Bin Mubarak said,  “What is happening in Yemen is nothing short of a humanitarian disaster – yet, stunningly enough, it has remained absent from national and international headlines. From Yemen and Somalia to Iraq and Angola, too many lives have been lost to landmines – these mines kill indiscriminately, instigating terror today and fear in the future. Long after any conflict ends, landmines ensure proper healing never takes place, and true peace is never attained. They are flagrant reminders of the pains of the past and reopen the wounds of war and conflict for generations to come.

Press Release: On the Houthis Pervasive & Deliberate Diversion of Humanitarian Aid in Yemen.

 

WASHINGTON, D.C.,

May 20, 2019

The Embassy of the Republic of Yemen today calls upon the United Nations to make public the true scope of aid diversion from Yemeni civilians, after a CNN investigation found new evidence of the widespread culpability of the Iran-backed Houthis in stealing and misusing humanitarian assistance. Today’s warning from the World Food Programme that it will suspend aid in Houthi-controlled areas suggests the scale of Houthi aid diversion is much greater than previously thought.

“The world cannot stand by while the Iran-backed Houthis starve innocent Yemenis for political purposes,” Dr. Ahmed BinMubarak, Yemen’s Ambassador to the United States, said. “Houthi abuse of humanitarian assistance has been repeatedly documented by aid groups and international media, and this new CNN investigation presents even more condemning evidence. The U.N. to make clear the real scope of Houthi aid diversion, and the international community should make guaranteed aid access a precondition of any engagement with the Houthis.”

The CNN undercover investigation found the Houthis have diverted food and other aid supplies on a far greater scale than what the United Nations previously has reported. The probe showed how the Houthis have diverted critical supplies from starving children and malnourished civilians in favor of feeding their soldiers.

The findings corroborate U.N. allegations last year that the Houthis deliberately blocked aid deliveries and used famine as a political weapon against citizens living in Houthi-controlled areas. While the U.N. has estimated that only 1 percent of all aid was going missing in Yemen, the new CNN investigation suggests the aid theft is far more pervasive.

The Houthis have a history of imposing severe restrictions on humanitarian workers in their territory, which include stealing and diverting aid supplies to benefit Houthi soldiers or to sell on the open market. The Houthis also use humanitarian aid to buy political support, rewarding what the U.N. calls “non-deserving populations” if they pledge to fight while punishing tribes, civilians and extremely vulnerable groups that only wish to remain neutral.

The Embassy of the Republic of Yemen categorically rejects the excuses of Houthi representative Hussin Al-Ezzi, who told CNN: “Mistakes happen sometimes.” Intentionally stealing aid meant to reach the most vulnerable civilians to feed militant groups or reward the corrupt can never be shrugged off as “mistakes.” These are horrific crimes against the Yemeni people.

“The Houthi leadership admits that they treat civilians as ‘capital’ for the war, to be fed or starved as they see fit to advance their political interests,” Ambassador BinMubarak said. “This famine is not a ‘mistake.’ The Houthis are deliberately starving Yemenis and blocking legitimate organizations such as the World Food Programme because they think it will tighten their hold on power.”

Last year, the World Food Programme (WFP) assessed seven districts in Houthi-controlled Sana’a and found some 60% of people had not received any aid. The shortfall was not a reflection of lack of supplies. It was a reflection of a Houthi fraud.

In recent months, the Houthis also blocked WFP access to grain supplies that could have fed millions of Yemenis. As Jonathan Cohen, the acting U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said: “Only the Houthis are blocking access to the mills… And they alone will be to blame if the food spoils.”

Today, we learned that the WFP is considering the suspension of aid in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, a remarkable warning from the UN program.  According to WFP, the Houthis have denied access to aid workers, blocked aid convoys, and interfered with aid distribution. The Houthis continue to place obstacles placed in the way of WFP’s independent selection of beneficiaries and a request for a roll out of a biometric registration system. Unfortunately, Houthi leaders have “broken assurances” given to WFP, and negotiations have yielded no tangible solutions.