On March 15, drones and fighter jets from the USS Harry S. Truman conducted the first in a series of “relentless” bombings across Yemen. These attacks lasted for a little over seven weeks before a ceasefire was achieved. US President Donald Trump and his administration have stated that the targets of those attacks were members of the Houthi militant group, however, many of the people killed or injured in the strikes were civilians not affiliated with the terrorist organisation.
While the March 15 strikes were the first U.S. actions that actively harmed Yemeni civilians since Trump’s reelection, many of the cuts and changes made by his administration to U.S. policy may have ripple effects that could place more innocent Yemenis at risk.
One Trump-era policy change with such side effects was the administration's re-designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO), a move that came after former President Joe Biden reversed a last-minute policy made by the first Trump administration when he took office in 2021.
On February 5, 2021, only seventeen days after the Trump administration designated the Houthis as an FTO, former President Biden removed the designation. In a now-deleted White House webpage, the Biden administration said that it was lifting the FTO designation in order to help mitigate the humanitarian crisis that has been plaguing Yemen for years.
The FTO designation makes it illegal for any United States entity—private or public—to provide “support or resources” to an FTO. Since the Houthis control over seventy percent of Yemen, this prohibition greatly hinders any aid initiatives, as U.S. entities must ensure that no aid reaches a Houthi member or civilian with ties to the Houthis.
Critically for Yemen, “support or resources” includes food aid. Yemen relies on imports for up to ninety percent of its food, fuel, and medicine, and while it is legal to provide medical supplies to FTO-controlled areas, U.S. entities cannot legally provide food and fuel to FTOs or any civilians related to FTOs. Currently, 17.4 million people in Yemen are food insecure, 15 million of whom are women and children. The FTO designation risks devastating the Yemeni economy and could potentially send parts of Yemen into a famine.
In 2024, after a series of Houthi attacks on U.S. naval vessels, the Biden administration re-designated the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) organisation, a less severe category that would block entities associated with the de facto Houthi government from conducting financial transactions or owning property inside the United States. Importantly, an SDGT designation does not prohibit the distribution of American humanitarian aid abroad. Despite this new designation, and against the warnings of humanitarian aid organisations, the Trump administration redesignated the Houthis as an FTO on March 4.
On top of placing restrictions on U.S.-based entities and NGOs providing humanitarian aid in Yemen, the Trump administration has drastically reduced the amount of American government aid being provided to Yemeni citizens. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order “reevaluating” the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). This reevaluation came along with a severe reduction in USAID programmes in every region of the world and by March 11, over 80 percent of the agency's programmes had been terminated.
The Trump administration has also been see-sawing on many decisions regarding some of the most important USAID programmes. Among these programmes is the USAID Urgent Food Aid programme—one of the most critical USAID programmes in Yemen. On April 8, the administration cancelled the programme. However, less than 24 hours later, aid was restored for all countries except Afghanistan and Yemen. This cancellation included food already at distribution centres in Yemen, ending lifesaving aid to at least 2.4 million people.
The Trump administration said it was cutting USAID programmes in Yemen because it claimed the Houthis were stealing aid. This statement is likely accurate as the Houthis have been accused of aid theft by multiple different sources. In 2019, the Houthis reportedly stole around 1 percent of the food aid that entered Yemen. This number is significant, but it does not outweigh the potential famine that will come about as a consequence of the FTO designation and the loss of USAID Urgent Food Aid.
The FTO designation will not only starve many innocent Yemenis, but it could even push some into extremism. When people are facing food insecurity and are unable to properly feed themselves and their families they become vulnerable to extremist groups. These individuals often do not want to join the Houthis, but as they begin to starve, joining becomes one of the only options available to them. The Houthis either keep the excess food for the members of their organisation or they resell the food for an extortionate amount. As aid dries up, the people of Yemen will have to face a choice: spend money they do not have to buy food from the Houthis, join the Houthis in order to eat, or die.
Since Donald Trump took office in January, his administration has enacted policies that have put the health and safety of 17.4 million Yemenis at immediate risk. Despite the ceasefire, these innocent Yemenis are still in danger. Not only has it become significantly more difficult for private entities in America to provide humanitarian aid, but U.S. government aid to the people of Yemen has been reduced to next to nothing. If they are unable to access aid, millions of people in Yemen face starvation, thousands of whom will likely die.