WFP pulls out of northern Yemen as Houthi pressure deepens humanitarian strain

# WFP pulls out of northern Yemen as Houthi pressure deepens humanitarian strain

IO Digest Desk

The World Food Programme is shutting down operations in northern Yemen and ending contracts for its remaining staff there, a move UN officials say follows months of restrictions, detentions and pressure from Houthi authorities.

According to DW, the WFP’s 365 remaining workers in the northern, rebel-held part of the country will lose their jobs by the end of March. The agency had already suspended work in the area in late August after Houthi forces detained 38 employees in a series of raids. International staff had previously been withdrawn. The closure means the WFP will no longer have personnel operating in the areas under de facto Houthi control.

The decision comes after more than a decade of war and amid worsening hunger indicators. UN officials told the Security Council this month that more than 18 million people in Yemen could face acute food insecurity within a month. Tens of thousands were already at risk of slipping into catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions. OCHA has said aid operations in Yemen in 2025 were only 25% funded, forcing agencies to scale back services and leaving millions without essential care.

The Houthi authorities have long accused UN staff in territory they control of being foreign spies, but have not provided evidence. The detentions and harassment have become a major obstacle for the aid system. DW said the WFP move was described by UN officials as a response to those conditions combined with a difficult funding environment.

The broader context is Yemen’s fractured war. Fighting erupted into all-out civil conflict in 2014, when Houthi forces swept south from their northern strongholds, seized much of the country including the capital Sanaa, and forced the internationally recognised government into exile. Years of war followed, with Saudi Arabia leading a military campaign in support of the ousted government. The Houthis have largely kept their territorial gains.

The aid contraction is not limited to one agency. Earlier this week, the UN Security Council voted to end a mission intended to enforce a faltering ceasefire in the western port city of Hodeida by the end of March. A US representative said Houthi obstructionism had left the mission without a purpose.

The WFP shutdown underscores how conflict, political obstruction and donor fatigue are combining to make hunger harder to address. Yemen is already one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises, and the loss of one of the largest food aid operators in the north will almost certainly make it harder to reach the people most at risk.

The immediate operational effect is clear: the WFP’s local workforce in the north is being dismantled, leaving aid delivery more dependent on a political environment that UN officials say has become untenable. The longer-term consequence is harder to quantify, but it points in the same direction as the rest of the crisis data. Yemen’s food emergency is not easing, and the mechanisms meant to blunt it are shrinking.