The International Rescue Committee has issued a statement this week condemning Saudi Arabia’s Yemen Comprehensive Humanitarian Operations (YCHO) announcement as neither comprehensive nor reflective of humanitarian priorities.
Heading toward the third anniversary of the Saudi invasion, aid officials note, the Saudis have tried to preempt a UN humanitarian plan with their own, but the Saudi plan is less about human rights than a war tactic aimed at consolidating control over much of Yemen.
The priority of the Saudi is ensuring that they retain control over the flow of aid into the country, while ensuring that no more than a token amount of aid is actually put into the country, skewed toward regions they already control.
The aid crisis in Yemen has millions at risk of starvation, but shortages are skewed heavily toward the Shi’ite north, while Saudi aid projects are focused almost exclusively on “loyal” ports in the nation’s south.