New Humanitarian: U.N. gives ultimatum to Yemen rebels over reports of aid theft
“The World Food Programme will start to suspend its operations in parts of the country Houthi rebels control as soon as this week if the group does not agree to implement a biometrics system intended to prevent aid fraud, the head of the U.N. agency said on Monday. WFP Executive Director David Beasley told the U.N. Security Council he had signed agreements with the Houthis on biometric registration of aid recipients starting last December, but ‘every time we got close to actually putting those agreements into place, there would be a new roadblock’…” (Parker/Slemrod, 6/17).

U.N. News: Yemeni children ‘dying right now’ due to food aid diversions Beasley warns Security Council
“…David Beasley was briefing the Security Council on the continuing dire humanitarian situation, along with the U.N. relief chief, Mark Lowcock, and the U.N. special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, who provided updates on the search for a political solution to end more than four years of brutal fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-led pro-government coalition. ‘We continue to face fierce resistance to simply just doing our job to keep people alive,’ said Mr. Beasley bluntly, noting that it was 18 months ago when WFP first uncovered ‘serious evidence that some food was going to the wrong people’…” (6/17).