By: Madyan Qasim

Since the first moment of its control over the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014, the Houthi militia has been seeking to dominate all state institutions, including local and international civil society organizations. This Iranian militia was working on blackmailing the organizations and refusing to renew their work permits except after implementing the militia’s conditions, which require that the organizations’ projects be harnessed for the benefit of their militia work, whether they were individuals or institutions.

With the length of the war, international organizations found themselves in the grip of the Houthi militia, which forced them to harness funds and projects to serve its sectarian and dynastic agendas under various names, all of which lead to the same purpose, which is to strengthen the militia’s arms with their various military, civil and social orientations.

Despite the practices and harassment practiced by the Houthi militia against humanitarian workers, specifically international organizations, the organizations are still reluctant to move their main offices to the interim capital, Aden, and the repeated calls made by the leadership of the legitimacy and the government have not been responded to, in an attempt to keep the organizations away from the pressures practiced against them by the militia leadership, which forced them to implement their projects according to the militia own agendas, which contradict humanitarian work, in which “humanity and impartiality” are considered one of its most important pillars, where the follower of the work of many organizations finds it as if it had turned into a revenue fund and a financial treasury to support the Iranian militia.

Local organizations and the pincers of Houthi

Before we talk about international organizations, we must mention here that local civil society organizations in Yemen had a prominent presence in various fields. These organizations were acting as a supportive alternative to the government’s work until the coup carried out by the Houthi militia against the state in 2014. This militia worked to empty civil work of its content, either by cloning affiliated organizations and forcing donors to implement projects through them or by closing those organizations and institutions and abducting its personnel.

The Houthi coup militia also tried to turn civil action into an eraser that erases all its crimes committed against the Yemeni people by forcing it to issue statements from time to time justifying its crimes and bearing the Arab Alliance and the legitimate government for the consequences of its crimes committed in various governorates.

The editor surveyed the views of some civil work leaders in Sana’a, who confirmed that their role in Houthi-controlled areas has become limited to issuing statements of support, denunciation, demand or asking for assistance in accordance with the Houthi militia’s directives that obligate them to do so, as well as forcing them to adopt sectarian positions that are completely incompatible with the values of civil and humanitarian work.

They emphasized that the militia is now blackmailing organizations on every sectarian and religious occasion that they celebrate throughout the year, forcing these organizations and institutions to fund these events, depriving organizations that refuse to do so from obtaining projects from donors at times, as well as refusing to renew their permits at other times, not to mention having to hundreds of civil institutions have been closed due to the lack of support, and as a result, only Houthi institutions are working and with funding from international organizations.

Not to mention the Houthi coup militia forcing merchants who were spending part of their zakat estimated at 25% in favor of humanitarian work, according to Zakat Law No. 2 of 1999, which stipulated that “a person who gives Zakat, whether natural or legal, has the right to distribute 25% of his total Zakat on the poor and needy.

Instead, the militia forced the merchants to hand over the full zakat to them, and not only that, but it also closed the charitable and civil institutions that depended on the support provided to them by the merchants and philanthropists as an operating budget, not to mention the imprisonment or threat of imprisonment for the merchants who were distributing food baskets or cash to the needy, in continuation of what they have been implementing over the past years, in accordance with the provisions of the aforementioned law.

Supporting the Houthis and depriving Yemenis:

With referring to international organizations, what is noticeable is the diversity of Houthi blackmail methods against international organizations by forcing them to adopt projects that are in the interest of supporting their fighters and militias in various places, according to what was revealed by a document issued by the so-called Taha Al-Mutawakkil - who was appointed by the Houthi militia as Health Minister - about using the support funds provided by international organizations, especially medical ones, for the benefit of its war against the Yemenis.

According to the document, al-Mutawakkil directed the General Authority of Zakat to provide the dues of 23 ambulance drivers that had been parked for more than a year and a half, as a result of the cessation of support for the organization - he did not name it - in reference to the endorsement of the organizations' work in favor of their fighters on the fronts and obligating these organizations to pay them financial salaries.

This comes at a time when reports have confirmed that international organizations’ aid goes to the benefit of the Houthi militia, which is working to monopolize it to supply its fighters while depriving millions of Yemenis in its areas of control of any aid and obligating organizations that provide humanitarian aid, whether in the field of food, education or other projects by imposing a certain percentage of its loyalists, even if they are not deserving of such assistance, in return for depriving Yemenis who may be more deserving than the militia members.

In addition to the above, the militia prevents organizations working in the humanitarian field from carrying out some training courses and forces these organizations to bring people loyal to them for training, in addition to the militia’s requirement that the trainer be affiliated with it or one of its loyalists in order for this militia to ensure that these courses are In favor of its sectarian ideas, even if these trainers are not qualified to do so.

Wide Houthi influence:

With the majority of international organizations' offices and headquarters in Sana'a and their work under the authority of the Houthi coup militia, observers believe that the Houthi militia has a wide influence within the corridors of international organizations and interferes in directing all humanitarian activities in Yemen.

According to what observers see, the Houthi militia imposes large-scale restrictions on the work of international organizations within a scheme to directly control the humanitarian and relief sector in Yemen, but the problem - according to observers - is the soft treatment shown by the international community with these Houthi schemes and the organizations' refusal to transfer their main offices to Aden in response to the calls of the Yemeni presidency and government.

This comes at a time when the Houthi militia has intensified its arbitrary measures against humanitarian and relief organizations operating in the capital, Sana'a, in a move to further restrict and control their work, especially after the US administration classified it as a terrorist group.

A document - published by activists on social media earlier - showed that the Houthi militia obligated humanitarian organizations to fill out forms related to comprehensive data for employees, including their political and religious affiliation. This step comes in conjunction with turning the work of humanitarian organizations into a market for blackmail and shifting humanitarian work to their favor at a time when it deprives millions of citizens of the aid that goes into the pockets of the militia's supervisors or to fuel their ongoing war.

Despite the widespread international condemnation of the Houthi militia’s actions, this is not enough, where observers accuse international organizations of identifying with the Houthi militia, helping the militia by implementing its activities in accordance with the Houthi agenda and turning some of their projects into a cover for Houthi support in various fields, despite Houthi interventions at humanitarian work by trying to influence them by selecting the beneficiaries of that aid and implementing partners.

Is it UN collusion or Houthi blackmail?

The issue of international identification with the Houthi militia raises the questions of many observers in Yemen regarding the mechanism of the relationship between international organizations and the Houthi militia. What is the secret of the international identification with the coup militia, despite the practices and extortion carried out by the militia against the same organizations?

These questions seem logical compared to the international identification with all those Houthi extortions, as well as the acceptance of these organizations to carry out sectarian and dynastic activities that are absolutely incompatible with humanitarian work, which they came to work for and under its slogan, as well as the silence of these organizations about the militia looting humanitarian aid in Yemen and turning it into a tool of war against the Yemenis amid the silence of the organizations despite their knowledge of the systematic looting of aid carried out by the militia in its various areas of control.

In this context, it is important to recall the report published by the British newspaper “The Guardian” at the beginning of 2019, in which it revealed the knowledge of international organizations of the militia’s looting of food aid in Yemen and the deprivation of its beneficiaries from the Yemenis in return for distributing it to the militia fighters on the fronts, and this humanitarian aid has become a Houthi tool to blackmail citizens in order to push their children to the battlefronts in exchange for this aid.

According to the newspaper, aid workers have been aware for several months of the Houthi militia's involvement in looting food aid in the capital, Sanaa, and the rest of the areas it controls, and manipulating data from United Nations malnutrition surveys.

Aid workers admitted that field survey data had been subjected to falsify because aid agencies were relying on people close to the Houthis to collect data on the poor. This comes after the announcement by the United Nations World Food Program of documenting evidence proving the involvement of the Houthi militia in seizing the relief aid provided to Yemen. In its statement, the World Food Program said that "the Houthis are stealing food from the mouths of the hungry people."

The exploitation of organizations in intelligence oprations:

Instead of the militia’s exploitation of the organizations’ work to implement its sectarian and dynastic agendas, the militia is working to exploit the organizations’ information in intelligence operations and turn it into the benefit of its own agenda, by ensuring that it obtains all the information from the relief and humanitarian organizations operating in Sana’a and the various governorates.

A document - circulated by activists on social media - confirmed the Houthi coup militia's exploitation of the organizations' work in intelligence operations through the so-called "Supreme Council for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation", which takes control all the information it obtains from international organizations operating in Sana'a and other governorates.

According to the Houthi document leaked from this council, which was directed to local and international organizations aimed at collecting and exploiting data for the benefit of the repressive intelligence services of the militia, in which the organizations were threatened with closure and expulsion if they carry out virtual activities via the Internet without obtaining permission from the same council and providing it with data on those activities.

This document prevents humanitarian and relief organizations from implementing any activities or projects through their websites, using their employees for study or monitoring work or the like, or holding any virtual meetings except after the approval of the Houthi Council and providing its general secretariat with literature, threatening the violating organizations with closure and expulsion from their areas.

Humanitarian workers considered that the Houthi action is a continuation of its violations and that this measure comes as a preemptive step to previous warnings to international organizations to close their offices in Sana’a, in rejection of this generalization, where the militia wanted to control local organizations, because these organizations was obtaining information and data about the displaced, the needy and others from international organizations.

They stressed that the militia's generalization aims to continue to obtain and confiscate its share of relief, in addition to that it has cloned hundreds of organizations that work under the banner of humanity, while in fact, they work for the Houthis' sectarianism, where their work comes within the militia's war effort.

This comes at a time when the Houthi coup militia - which handles the process of receiving and distributing tons of humanitarian aid that arrives weekly through Sana'a International Airport - is facing accusations of selling large quantities of this aid in the markets as one of the means of enrichment and distributing the rest of it according to the criterion of loyalty to the militia.

The government accuses organizations of complicity:

Earlier, the Yemeni government accused international organizations of leniency with the crimes of the Houthi militia and silence about its violations committed against Yemenis and the abducted in particular, at a time when former Prime Minister Ahmed Obaid bin Daghr accused the Houthi militia of exerting pressure on the international organizations operating in Sana'a.

This was evidenced by the false statements provided by the militia to international organizations in Sana’a, including the report of the Commission for Human Rights on Yemen earlier, in which the Yemeni government said at the time that it included “misleading and false information and that its paragraphs lack impartiality and professionalism,” where the report relied on the misleading information provided by the militia to the organizations' offices in Sana'a, and these organizations are content with this information to assess the situation in Yemen.

Observers believe that the UN organizations operating in Sanaa are being pressured by the Houthi militia to transmit misleading information, calling on the organizations to move their offices to the interim capital of Aden and work with impartiality and professionalism, noting at the same time that some UN reports did not mention the coup of the Iranian-backed Houthi militia against the authorities, controlling the capital Sana'a, looting billions of dollars and committing massacres against civilians.

The above reveals the practices carried out by the Houthi militia in blackmailing international organizations in exchange for the silence of the international organizations regarding these Houthi practices, which are now raising signs of doubt regarding these positions compromising Houthi practices, and the question is: Is UN silence considered an inability in confronting the militia’s tyranny or complicity with it?