International attention to Yemen’s affairs in 2016 was focused not on Houthi rebels atrocities, but rather on what many international NGOs termed the “worst man-made humanitarian crisis”, suggested Asher Orkaby, a research associate and instructor at Harvard University and the author of "Yemen: What Everyone Needs to Know" in an analysis published The National Interest website.
Orkaby added that photos of starving Yemeni children were used as advertisements for fundraising campaigns run by organizations like Mercy Corps and Oxfam, the latter of which spent a third of its revenue on non-program costs like administration and marketing in 2019.
The Houthi rebels, meanwhile, benefited from this international attention, which afforded their leadership a degree of political legitimacy that had previously evaded them.Sitting at the negotiating table on equal footing with the internationally recognized Yemeni government did far more for their movement than military victories alone.
Funding for the Houthi movement was derived, in part, from the international humanitarian aid model, which had become one of the largest single components of Yemen’s gross domestic product. Transit fees charged by Houthi rebels, in addition to the local patronage earned by Houthi control over the humanitarian aid delivery network, continued to enrich the movement’s leadership.
Meanwhile, Yemeni farmers and local suppliers suffered the most, as they were drawn into a worsening cycle of poverty, unable to compete with food aid supplied by international NGOs and UN-affiliated organizations.
After the UN diplomatic track dragged on for two years without producing any significant results, in September 2018, the coalition launched a renewed ground offensive against the Houthi-held port on Hodeidah, which was the entry point for 80 percent of the humanitarian aid and a main source of Houthi financing.
As Saudi-UAE coalition forces appeared to be on the verge of victory in Hodeidah, UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths intervened, pressuring both sides to reenter negotiations that would eventually produce the ill-fated Stockholm Agreement in December 2018.
The limited ceasefire and troop withdrawal around Hodeidah failed to materialize, as fighting continued on numerous fronts over the next three years. Only the Houthis emerged victorious from Stockholm, having achieved a further level of diplomatic normalization, further cementing their presence in Yemen.
The newly empowered Houthi movement launched a major offensive in February 2021, targeting the city of Marib, where the internationally recognized government was still in power. Saudi and Emirati air strikes against Houthi forward positions were condemned by the incoming Biden administration, which announced the official end of the U.S. support for the Saudi coalition. President Biden revoked the Houthi movement’s Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation, pressuring the warring parties once again to the negotiating table. Saudi and Emirati-backed troops were forced to withdraw from three fronts in Hodeidah, Marib, and the central city of Taiz, with their positions quickly overrun by Houthi militias.
Renewed rounds of UN-brokered peace talks following local Houthi victories produced few results. Increased pressure was, instead, placed on Saudi Arabia to end its military operations in Yemen and enter into a March 2023 agreement with its main regional rival Iran, with an aim to bring about a peaceful end to the Yemeni civil war.
Over ten years, the Houthis have grown into an organization financed indirectly by humanitarian aid, aided militarily by UN-brokered ceasefires, and politically normalized by diplomatic overtures that handed the tyrannical regime an equal seat at the negotiating table.
The international community is responsible for having fostered the growth of this cancerous menace. It is now responsible for overseeing its removal from power, freeing the Yemeni people who have been held hostage by the Houthis since September 2014. This new round of airstrikes, coupled with coordinated ground offensives by the existing anti-Houthi militias, stands a chance of finally bringing down their regime. That is, as long as the UN does not declare another ceasefire.