Houthi authorities order US and British aid workers out of Yemen within 30 days News
Yarinya, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Houthi authorities order US and British aid workers out of Yemen within 30 days

Houthi authorities sent a letter Tuesday to the UN’s acting humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Peter Hawkins, requesting that all British and American nationals leave Yemen within a month.

The letter comes as US and British forces continue strikes against targets in Yemen. Houthi forces had been targeting ships in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a busy shipping lane between Yemen and Eritrea, calling for an end to Israel’s strikes on Palestine. A range of ships from around the world had been targeted, and the US and UK responded earlier this month by initiating strikes against Houthi targets. The latest of these happening just a few days ago, with the US Department of Defense issuing a statement that they had completed additional strikes on Houthi underground storage sites and “locations associated with the Houthis’ missile and air surveillance capabilities.” They went on to state that their aim “remains to de-escalate tensions and restore stability in the Red Sea.”

In the letter, the Houthi-controlled Foreign Affairs Ministry has requested that all aid workers with British and American citizenship leave within the next 30 days and that the UN not recruit any more people with dual nationality from the UK or Amercia. They ended the letter by stating that, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Yemen takes this opportunity to express appreciation and respect to the office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator.”

Yemen has been in a state of civil war since 2014, between the Iran-backed Houthi and government forces. The conflict has lead to what has been described as the worst crisis in the world, with over 21 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

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