United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg said the country faces “a new and more dangerous phase of war”, as the country’s fragile four-year truce collapses. The United Nations Security Council held a session on Yemen after Houthi rebels captured the strategic port city of Mocha, near the Bab al-Mandeb strait on Thursday. The Houthis’ seizure of Mocha gives the group a direct presence near Bab al-Mandeb, raising concerns over freedom of navigation through the vital trade and energy route. Grundberg said fighting has spread across the provinces of Taiz, Hodeidah, Marib, al-Jawf and al-Bayda, killing civilians and displacing more than 11,400 households since September 3.
The Houthis have also struck civilian and energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. Grundberg urged the Houthis to halt attacks and threats against commercial vessels and called for continued engagement, civilian protection and preservation of a political settlement, warning that the conflict’s consequences “will not remain within Yemen’s borders”. The UN ambassador for Yemen’s internationally recognised government, Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, condemned the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and reaffirmed the kingdom’s right to self-defence. He also rejected the use of Yemeni territory to strike neighbouring states.
Al-Saadi told the council that the Houthi escalation has displaced at least 6,145 families, roughly 44,000 people. The Red Sea attacks and advances towards Bab al-Mandeb threaten international navigation, he warned. He urged the international community to enforce restrictions on arms, components and expertise reaching the Houthis, instead of “repeatedly containing individual attacks”. Saudi Arabia’s ambassador, Abdulaziz al-Wasil, condemned the Houthis’ September 8 strikes across several parts of the kingdom, which wounded 73 civilians, calling them part of a broader escalation threatening the region and international shipping.
He urged the council to enforce resolutions 2216 and 2722 and halt support enabling the attacks. [Above, could we please say what the resolutions were, briefly?] The United States, which, alongside Israel, launched a war on Iran in late February, echoed the condemnation, accusing Tehran of enabling the Houthis and demanding an immediate end to the attacks and the unconditional release of detained UN, humanitarian and diplomatic personnel. Speaking for the Gulf Cooperation Council, Bahraini Ambassador Jamal Fares Alrowaiei said the Mocha seizure compounded civilian suffering and threatened navigation in Bab al-Mandeb. The official demanded accountability for the perpetrators and stronger enforcement of the arms embargo and sanctions. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that lack of food access and malnutrition are deepening across Yemen, now classified as a “hunger hotspot of highest concern”, An estimated 18.3 million people face acute food insecurity, or lack of access to food, OCHA said, including more than 2.2 million children under five suffering acute malnutrition, more than half a million of whom are classified as severe.
