Since the armed conflict began in 2004, humanitarian agencies working in Sada governorate have faced a wide range of challenges in gaining access to the displaced and other civilians in need of assistance. Precisely because the government has effectively prevented humanitarian agencies, journalists, and others from accessing most parts of the governorate, there is little evidence that on any given date the authorities refusal to allow access was arbitrary, in contravention of international law.

Those restrictions have also prevented humanitarian agencies from determining the full extent of the conflicts impact on civilians, and their needs in the aftermath. The restrictions on access documented in this report show that the government broadly and systematicallyand without transparent and persuasive reasonsprevented impartial national and international humanitarian agencies from reaching civilians to assess their needs and respond with assistance. What is clear is that the need is great, and that assistance has not reached rural areas, where many displaced persons remain camped, sometimes in the wild, and where government restrictions still prevent humanitarian agencies from providing assistance.

One foreign diplomat in Sana told Human Rights Watch that an official from the Deputy Minister of Plannings office told diplomats that the Yemeni government did not want foreign nationals seeing what was happening in Sada governorate.[87] During the fifth round of fighting the authorities granted a national humanitarian agency close to the government access to areas that they refused to give to international agencies, indicating that security was less of a reason than official discomfort with international staff witnessing what was taking place inside the war zone.[88] Because the need is considerably greater than what the national agencies can provide, the governments refusal to allow international humanitarian agencies access appears to violate its obligation to ensure that the population gets the assistance it needs to ensure survival.

Humanitarian law relating to access

International humanitarian law provides that a civilian population suffering hardship is entitled to receive humanitarian relief essential to its survival.[89] Parties to a conflict must facilitate impartial relief. While parties can take measures to control the content and delivery of humanitarian aid, they cannot deliberately impede delivery, and under no circumstances may a party arbitrarily refuse aid agencies access to affected populations.[90]

Article 18(2) of Protocol II states:

If the civilian population is suffering undue hardship owing to a lack of the supplies essential for its survival, such as foodstuffs and medical supplies, relief actions for the civilian population which are of an exclusively humanitarian and impartial nature and which are conducted without any adverse distinction shall be undertaken subject to the consent of the High Contracting Party concerned.[91]

According the ICRCs authoritative commentary to Protocol II, the consent requirement does not mean that the decision is left to the parties discretion:

If the survival of the population is threatened and a humanitarian organization fulfilling the required conditions of impartiality and non-discrimination is able to remedy this situation, relief actions must take place The authorities responsible for safeguarding the population in the whole of the territory of the State cannot refuse such relief without good grounds.[92]

Likewise, customary international humanitarian law provides that parties must ensure the freedom of movement of authorized humanitarian relief agencies, and that only in case of imperative military necessity may their movements be temporarily restricted.[93] A party to the conflict can claim imperative military necessity if it believes that relief operations will interfere with military operations and such an exception can only be limited and temporary.[94]

International humanitarian law provides special protection for humanitarian relief workers, which considers their safety and security an indispensable condition for the delivery of humanitarian aid.[95] In numerous conflicts, the UN Security Council has urged all parties to internal armed conflicts to respect and protect humanitarian workers.[96] Like civilians, humanitarian aid workers are entitled to protection from direct or indiscriminate attack.[97] Parties may not harass, intimidate or arbitrarily detain them.[98] Objects used in humanitarian relief operations, such as food, medicines, and vehicles are civilian objects and must be respected and protected.[99] Destruction, theft and looting of such objects is prohibited.[100] The UN Guiding Principles in Internal Displacement also prohibit all interference with humanitarian aid agencies and their work.[101]

Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement relating to access

Internally displaced persons are protected under international law both during periods of armed conflict and in peacetime. The UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement set out the rights of IDPs to receive humanitarian assistance that protects their basic social and economic needs, such as access to food and water, health care and shelter. Displaced civilians in Yemen are entitled to the protection of all their rights while they are displaced, and must not face discrimination because of their displacement.[102]

The Yemeni government has the primary duty and responsibility to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to IDPs and IDPs have the right to request and receive protection and humanitarian assistance from the Yemeni authorities.[103] If the Yemeni authorities do not provide assistance, then aid agencies:

Have the right to offer their services in support of IDPs [which] shall be considered in good faith. Consent thereto shall not be arbitrarily withheld, particularly when authorities concerned are unable or unwilling to provide the required humanitarian assistance All authorities concerned shall grant and facilitate the free passage of humanitarian assistance and grant persons engaged in the provision of such assistance rapid and unimpeded access to IDPs.[104]

Regarding the type of assistance to which all IDPs are entitled, the Guiding Principles make clear that at a minimum, regardless of the circumstances they shall receive help to ensure safe access to (a) essential food and potable water; (b) basic shelter and housing; (c) appropriate clothing; and (d) essential medical services and sanitation.[105]

The Guiding Principles also set out the rights of special groups, such as children, especially unaccompanied minors, expectant mothers, mothers with young children, female heads of household, persons with disabilities and elderly persons to receive assistance required by their condition and to treatment which takes into account their special needs.[106]

Regarding health care, all wounded and sick IDPs as well as those with disabilities shall receive to the fullest extent practicable and with the least possible delay, the medical care and attention they require including access to psychological and social services. Furthermore, special attention should be paid to the health needs of women, including access to female health care providers and services as well as appropriate counseling for victims of sexual and other abuses.[107]

Lack of humanitarian access between the fourth and fifthrounds of fighting (June 18, 2007 to May 10, 2008)

Even during extended lulls in the fighting, such as the nearly one-year interval between the fourth and fifth rounds, national and international humanitarian aid agencies found it impossible to access most parts of Sada governorate.

At the end of July 2007, over a month after the official end of the fourth round of violence, the government still prohibited national aid agencies from reaching civilians affected by the conflict.[108] In subsequent months some agencies were able to reach a very limited number of rural areas, and only on a sporadic basis.[109] One year later, a month after the end of the fifth round of fighting in July 2008, aid agencies faced similar constraints (see below).

Most international aid agencies first began working in Sada after the end of the

fourth round of fighting, which officially ended on June 18, 2007. Since that time, agencies have mostly been limited to working in Sada town or, in limited cases, to a few smaller towns, requiring IDPs and other vulnerable populations to risk crossing military, Huthi, and tribal checkpoints to reach aid.

Between the fourth and fifth round of fighting, the government broadly and systematically denied all international aid agencies access to Sada governorates rural areas, citing general security concerns. In early 2008, the government denied agencies permission to undertake assessment missions in areas believed to contain large numbers of civilians in need, citing landmines as well as ongoing clashes between the Huthis and security forces, and between the Huthis and pro-government tribes.[110]

On a few exceptional occasions, the government granted permission for assessment missions. However, due to government restrictions on access to the mobile phone network in Sada governorate beginning in 2007, agencies were unable to reach Huthi contacts to obtain security guarantees and so could not travel.[111]

Between June 2007 and May 2008, the UN World Food Programs (WFP) partner agencies distributed food to tens of thousands of IDPs living in camps in Sada town and with host families of the town, and to approximately 10,000 people who regularly came to Sada town from rural areas to collect their rations.[112] However, an unknown number of civilians who were unable to reach Sada townprobably numbering in the tens of thousandsreceived no help. Insecurity, coupled with the UNs concern that Yemenis throughout the country view the UN as a pro-Western or pro-American agency and not a neutral humanitarian or developmental force, led the UN not to travel to Sadas rural areas.[113] The WFP carried out a food security assessment outside of Sada town in October 2007, and as of October 2008 had not yet completed a new assessment.[114]

In the nine months prior to the outbreak of renewed fighting in May 2008, humanitarian agencies were able to carry out medical work in a number of small towns in Sada governorate, though the Ministry of Interior required each of them without exception to get permission for each and every trip undertaken from the capital to these towns.[115]

Concerns surrounding the lack of access to Sada governorates rural areas were heightened by the fact that civilians were often unable to pass through government, Huthi, or tribal checkpoints to reach district towns and access medical services.

Lack of humanitarian access during the fifth round of fighting (May 10, 2008 to July 17, 2008)

During the most recent round of fighting, from May 10 until July 17, 2008, international humanitarian agencies were unable to access any of the estimated 30,000 displaced people living in the rural areas of Sada, al-Jauf, and `Amran governorates. The government systematically prohibited almost all travel in rural areas, delaying decisions and negotiations with aid agencies, and turning down individual agency requests for access one by one. [116]

National aid agencies, including the Yemeni Red Crescent, told Human Rights Watch that they were usually prevented from accessing rural areas at military checkpoints, which allowed them to reach only one or two pockets of civilians on a limited number of occasions.[117]

Two agencies told Human Rights Watch that even with government permission it was impossible for them to travel during the fighting to Huthi-controlled areas because local tribal leaders (shaikhs), who liaise with the Huthis to guarantee agencies safety, had no means of communication after the government incapacitated the mobile phone network.[118]

After the fifth round of fighting began in early May 2008, the government broadly prohibited all aid agency staff then in Sada town from traveling to nearby rural areas or to access nearby warehouses with food stocks.[119]

Although one UN agency staffer felt that civilians were able to travel freely from the rural areas to reach assistance in Sada town, staffers from other agencies told Human Rights Watch that civilians were prevented at both military and Huthi checkpoints from traveling from their villages to Sada town to seek food and medical assistance (see also below under health care). Despite their awareness of this stuck civilian populationpeople who could not stay in their villages due to the violence but who could also notmove freely to seek assistanceaid agencies had no way of reaching them.[120]

One aid agency also told Human Rights Watch that, on the exceptional occasions that the Ministry of Interior granted permission to travel to rural areas, soldiers manning military checkpoints refused to let them pass.[121]

Closure of the SanaSada road: blocking necessities to civilians

The governments blocking of basic necessities, including both humanitarian assistance and commercial trade, to Sada town in mid-2008 amounted to an unlawful restriction on humanitarian access to the civilian population. When carried out in retribution for civilians alleged support of the Huthis, it is a form of collective punishment prohibited under international humanitarian law.[122]

Beginning around May 12, 2008, following two weeks of heavy fighting in Dhahyan district to the north of Sada town, the government turned down all aid agency requests to travel from the capital Sana to Sada town, usually citing insecurity caused by Huthi checkpoints.[123] The closure continued until July 20, 2008. As a result, for ten weeks no humanitarian supplies (food, non-food items, and medicine) reached Sada, and aid workers in Sada town assisting the 60,000 IDPs in the town and the camps there were forced to work with the limited supplies already on hand when the fighting erupted.

During the same period, the government also blocked the movement of all commercial goods, including staple foods and fuel.[124] A number of sources told Human Rights Watch that between early May and mid-July 2008, no diesel reached Sada, and petrol and diesel prices doubled. As a result, diesel-run generators powering Sada town were inactive, leading to an electricity blackout for over two months.[125]

Human Rights Watch spoke with a displaced person from Sada who said that food and non-food prices had increased significantly during the closure: a bag of wheat increased from 7,000 Yemeni Rial (YER) (US$35) to YER 21,000 ($105) while a cooking gas cylinder increased from YER 550 ($2.75) to YER 2,500 ($ 12.50).[126] According to an employee of one of Sadas hospitals, the price of a 200-liter container of diesel increased from YER 7,500 ($37.50) to YER 22,000 ($110).[127]

Sada town was not the only area where the government broadly blocked humanitarian aid and commercial traffic. Between May 4 and July 17, fighting spread beyond all 15 districts of Sada governorate into other parts of Yemen, including al-Jawf, Amran, Hajja and Sana governorates. When the conflict reached Bani Hushaish district in Sana governorate in June 2008, within 20 kilometers of the capital, the government imposed a blockade of diesel and food products on the entire civilian population in the district. The measure appears to be unlawful collective punishment. An official from the Sada Governors office told the media that the aim was to push the locals to understand that they must cooperate with the state against the Huthis even if they are their relatives or neighbors.[128]

Access to health care

Yemeni and international medical staff working in Sada towns Republican Hospital continued to work during the fifth round of fighting. However, the Sana-Sada road closure meant that no supplies reached the hospital between early May and late July 2008, leading to shortages, particularly in the hospitals laboratory. The towns second hospital, the Saudi-funded Al-Salam Hospital, was closed to civilians in early May 2008 to cope with the high number of military casualties. As a result, the 30-bed Republican Hospital had to cope with an increased number of civilians seeking help. At times staff had to turn people away because of lack of capacity.[129]

Since early in the war, possibly around 2005, the government instructed Ministry of Health staff across Sada governorate to report wounded persons seeking help in a government health facility.[130]During the fifth round of fighting some wounded civilians as well as those with other medical needs opted not to seek medical help, refused transfer between health facilities, and fled health facilities for fear of arrest for being a Huthi rebel or Huthi supporter; some were arrested inside health facilities.[131]

For a limited period during the fifth round of fighting, only locals from Sada town could access Republican Hospital. An unofficial curfew in effect in Sada governorate during the fifth round of fighting precluded civilians traveling after dark for any reason, effectively denying access to civilians from rural areas.[132] Many people did not even try to reach Sada town for emergency medical care, leading, for example, to miscarriages by women with no access to midwives.[133]

The Islah Charitable Society, a Yemeni NGO related to the Islah Party and working in the health sector, such as with malnourished women and children, carried out limited work in Sahar, al-Zhahir, and Malahit districts in Sada governorate between January and May 2008, but was unable to access these areas when armed conflict resumed in May 2008.[134] In June 2008, this NGO was also unable to access a number of informal gatherings of IDPs in Bani Sad district displaced from the previous (fourth) round of fighting, whom they had been able to reach in early 2008.[135]

Although MSF national staff, working side-by-side with government staff, remained in all of its healthcare projects in Sada governorate throughout the fifth round of fighting, the organization evacuated its international staff from Sada governorate on June 17, 2008, and published the following article on its website:

Since 10 May, we had been unable to deploy our assistance in satisfactory conditions, whether for treating injured, or assisting displaced persons. It is difficult to know precisely what is happening in the areas of fighting, or areas controlled by the rebellion: access is prohibited for security reasons, there are no independent observers present, and most communication networks are severed. No numbers are available concerning dead or injured. However, the use of heavy weapons, aerial bombardment of villages, and information from other sources all leads to concern over civilian casualties.

Yet most civilians have no access to adequate care structures. Civilians cannot always get to a hospital, either on account of the danger of travelling through the fighting, or because they fear being accused of supporting the rebellion, therefore of being arrested. Even for medical staff, access to hospitals and health centres is complicated, sometimes impossiblethis compounds the problems of access to care for the injured

Furthermore, where we did receive precise information concerning injury victims requiring treatment, we found it impossible to bring them in: this was notably the case at Dhahyan, a village under rebel control, located a ten-minute drive from Al Tahl[al-Talh] (which lies in the government zone). On 11 May, our Yemeni team treated 25 women and children there, who had been injured in shelling. Since their condition demanded evacuation, two ambulances left Al Tahl [al-Talh] to pick them up, after obtaining permission from the authorities. However, on account of heavy firing in the vicinity, the team was unable to evacuate them. The injured were aware that the ambulance had gone back. MSF later learned that seven of these patients died over the next 24 hours.

Another consequence of the war, the most visible so far, is the number of people streaming out towards Saada or Malahit [towns] where MSF teams have been able to assess the situation. [However], we were unable to provide assistance to [these] IDPs for safety reasons and because our discussions with the authorities and other aid agencies in situ were not successful.[136]

Humanitarian access since the end of fighting

Three days after President Saleh declared an end to the fifth round of fighting on July 17, 2008, Minister of Interior Rashad al-Masri met with international humanitarian agencies and announced that they had full and unrestricted access to the whole of Sada governorate.[137]

The reality was considerably less open. Agencies had to ask the ministry for permission for each and every trip, a requirement that seriously restricted operational effectiveness. [138] By the end of August 2008, the ministry had permitted visits to very few areas, citing ongoing fighting and Huthi checkpoints as reasons for denying access. [139]

WFP Yemeni contractors were able to transport food to Sada town on July 19, and the first international NGO received permission to travel to Sada town on July 27. By July 29, authorities gave the Yemeni Red Crescent permission to enter Sada town but nowhere else in the governorate.[140]

Around July 20, the UN resident coordinator asked the government for permission for a joint UN agency assessment mission to travel, with armed escorts, to Sada town, including to camps on the outskirts of the town, and to Malahit town in al-Zhahir district in southwest Sada governorate.[141] More than two weeks later the authorities granted permission, and the mission took place in mid-August. A humanitarian NGO told Human Rights Watch that at the time local government officials had told them that access to the rural areas near Malahit town was difficult as even the security forces dont go there because the Huthis had full control of parts of the surrounding area.[142]

On August 8, three weeks after the official end of fighting, the ICRC stated that except in Sada city and its immediate vicinity, it remains difficult or impossible for the ICRC to operate in the conflict zones of northern Yemen. [T]he ICRC has so far only provided basic emergency assistance mainly to displaced persons in camps close to the city [of Sada].[143]

This situation is echoed by media reports in late August 2008, according to which members of the governments reconstruction committee stated that many displaced residents in Haidan and Saqain districts are experiencing harsh living conditions because relief agencies and charitable organizations are concentrating on those refugees living in tents in the suburbs around the provincial capital [Sada town], and that the majority of the displaced were living far from Sada town.[144]

By September 2008, the government had not granted international agencies access to either Haidan or Saqin districts because of what the authorities said were ongoing skirmishes between the Huthis, tribes, and government forces.[145]

In other areas there was some expansion of humanitarian access. In late August 2008 the government granted access to international agencies working in Malahit and Dhahyan town and districts, and to Razih and al-Talh towns.As of late October, however, access to rural areas was extremely limited at best, because of security concerns, restrictive checkpoints, and uncertainty about which areas are under control of government forces, Huthi rebels, or tribesmen from the area.[146]

Attacks on humanitarian agencies

Due to the governments information blackout and aid agencies understandable reluctance to report on incidents involving loss of vehicles or materials, there is little information available on the extent of attacks on humanitarian agencies. However, a number of incidents have been reported.

On May 2, 2007, unidentified parties employed heavy gunfire against a 15-truck humanitarian convoy belonging to the ICRC and the Yemeni Red Crescent, clearly marked with the Red Crescent emblem, 18 kilometers north of Sada town. The convoy was carrying emergency supplies for 560 displaced families in Baqim district in northern Sada governorate. Two Red Crescent volunteers were injured.[147]

In May 2008, pro-government tribes attacked a Yemeni Red Crescent convoy with non-food items in the Huth district of Amran governorate. The agency had agreed with the authorities in Amran governorate to set up three camps for displaced families. The Yemeni Red Crescent subsequently suspended all activities in Amran governorate and was only able to reach the displaced in August 2008.[148]

Unidentified parties attacked the Yemeni Red Crescent when it tried to access 600 families in Harf Sufyan during the height of the fighting in June 2008.[149]

During the second and third weeks of August 2008 three weeks after the official end of the fifth round of fighting unknown parties stole single vehicles from two international humanitarian agencies on the main road from Sana to Sada.[150]

The United Nations and International Donors

The United Nations

Security concerns throughout Yemen have placed all UN staff in the country on heightened security alert. Since the beginning of the armed conflict in 2004, UN agencies have operated in only two townsSada and Malahitin the war-torn Sada governorate.

After six months of negotiation between the World Food Program (WFP) and the government regarding access to IDP camps in Sada town, the UN in June 2007 began to provide assistance to some of the war-affected population.[151] Since then, the WFP, which chairs the UN Emergency Response and Preparedness Team, has taken the de facto lead among UN agencies in terms of service provision in Sada town, continuing to organize food distribution through its implementing partners, Islamic Relief and the Yemeni Red Crescent.

Since mid-2007, UNICEF has funded four aid agencies to carry out work in Sada towns camps.[152] Since October 2007, UNHCR has also carried out limited distribution of non-food items in Sada towns camps.[153] By July 2008, UNHCR had international staff on standby to travel and work in Sada, including in Yemeni Red Crescent-run camps, to monitor and report on humanitarian needs and other pressing issues. In the absence of other UN agencies such as the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, which has no staff in Yemen, only UNHCR staff are available for possible full-time deployment in Sada, including during times of conflict, for identifying assistance needs and other humanitarian concerns.

In mid-July 2008 the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) sent a staff member to Yemen to improve coordination among UN agencies and between the UN and NGOs working in Sada governorate.

International Donors

Donors to Yemen, including nine European Union (EU) states, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States, have been reluctant to press the government on its conduct of the war and the issue of humanitarian access.[154] The main reason for this reluctance appears to be a belief that Yemens overriding challenges are securityspecifically the fight against al Qaeda, which has a strong presence in Yemenand development.[155] Despite the humanitarian suffering and the human rights emergency created by four years of war, and despite rule of law initiatives launched by some donors, to date the primary goal of the donors appears to be to stabilize the governments fragile political grip on the country, a goal which they view as incompatible with holding the authorities accountable over their conduct in the war.

This reticence to engage the government over its laws of war obligations, particularly on the question of humanitarian access, is reflected in the wording of the only public document released by the EU since the war started in 2004, a June 2008 declaration of the Council of the European Union:

The EU firmly supports the Government and people of Yemen in addressing the countrys economic, political security and social challenges. While acknowledging the need for the Government to maintain security within its borders, the EU remains concerned by the recent escalation of fighting around Sadah and the expansion of the conflict to the outskirts of Sana and other areas [and] remains ready to consider urgent humanitarian assistance to victims, including the worrying number of IDPs.[156]

The statement said nothing about violations of international humanitarian law by either government forces or the Huthis.

In June and July 2008 some EU member states and the European Commission attempted but failed to adopt a joint EU demarche on the issue of humanitarian access within Sada governorate. [157] Shortly thereafter, the US embassy brought together representatives of interested embassies, two UN agencies (WFP and UNDP, the latter as Resident Coordinator, the UNs highest representative in a country), and international NGOs to try to agree on a joint approach towards the Yemeni authorities on the issue of humanitarian access and access to medical relief. Although participants arrived at a consensus on the main parts of a written text, no agreement could be reached on the best format for approaching the authorities, in part because EU states could not agree on whether member states should present a joint front or whether member states could individually sign onto the initiative. Shortly after the question had been resolved at the EU headquarters in Brussels, President Saleh declared an end to the fifth round of fighting on July 17, 2008. [158]

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