Sanaa IDPs Face Hunger After Houthis Seize Aid

A nurse weighs Afaf Hussein, 10, who is malnourished, at the malnutrition treatment ward of al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
A nurse weighs Afaf Hussein, 10, who is malnourished, at the malnutrition treatment ward of al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
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Sanaa IDPs Face Hunger After Houthis Seize Aid

A nurse weighs Afaf Hussein, 10, who is malnourished, at the malnutrition treatment ward of al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
A nurse weighs Afaf Hussein, 10, who is malnourished, at the malnutrition treatment ward of al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Sabri Moneef, an internally displaced Yemeni who left Hodeidah for Sanaa, voiced his deep concerns and fears towards relief agencies halving their aid as per their announcement last April.

Moneef says he dreads that his family, which is very dependent on food aid, will be cut off completely and left to starve.

As a father of eight children, Moneef complains that he is being denied his share of food baskets distributed by the UN after aid having come to a halt. Houthis in Sanaa claim that it was the UN that stopped the aid.

Moneef, 43, says the last time his family received any aid was in Ramadan. Even then the food basket they received was missing cooking oil and sugar. The impoverished refugee in Sanaa claims that Houthis had plundered the missing items given that they were in charge of aid distribution in the coup-held capital.

He also talks about hundreds of IDPs in Sanaa who have not received their food aid for over four months, as they face several Houthi obstacles that prevent them from obtaining aid allocated for them.

According to local statistics, there are more than 60,000 Yemeni families who have been displaced during the past years to Sanaa due to the Houthi-waged war.

The livelihood of these families mainly depends on the international relief aid provided to them.

A number of international donors, including the US, have cut aid to Yemenis as a result of their suspicions that their previous contributions were being seized and diverted to militia-controlled areas, instead of being distributed to the needy.

Relief officials said that they had faced many delays in the past in obtaining the necessary approvals and statements by the Houthi militias to deliver aid. They also added that their employees are exposed to abuse and detention by the group's militants.



ISIS Kills Five Kurdish Fighters in Eastern Syria

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)
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ISIS Kills Five Kurdish Fighters in Eastern Syria

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters sit on a vehicle in the north of Raqqa city, Syria. (Reuters file)

The ISIS militant group said on Monday it killed five Kurdish fighters in an attack in eastern Syria's Deir Ezzor, according to the group's news agency.

The spokesperson for Syria's Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces Farhad Shami confirmed to Reuters that five members were killed in the attack which he described as "one of deadliest" against the group in a while.

Deir Ezzor city was captured by the ISIS group in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.

Former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a so-called “caliphate” over a quarter of Syria and Iraq in 2014 before he was killed in a raid by US special forces in northwest Syria in 2019 as the group collapsed.

It has been recently trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia.