The UN Security Council has slapped sanctions on Houthi leader Muhammad Abd Al Karim Al Ghamari and two other members of the rebel group that for seven years has controlled much of northern Yemen and the capital Sanaa.
Those named in the sanctions are now subject to asset freezes and travel bans due to their involvement in strikes on Saudi Arabia and the Houthi offensive on the oil-rich Marib region, Britain’s UN mission said in a statement on Wednesday.
Mr Al Ghamari, the Houthi chief of general staff, leads the group's “efforts that are directly threatening the peace, security and stability of Yemen, including in Marib, as well as cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia”, the sanctions listing said.
Also sanctioned were Yusuf Al Madani, a Houthi leader involved in the offensive in Marib, and Saleh Mesfer Saleh Al Shaer, an assistant defence minister who has helped smuggle weapons for the Iran-backed group.
Britain emphasised the group’s actions in Marib as being one of the drivers behind the sanctions, as the Houthis have used child soldiers in the offensive and have cut off civilian access to aid.
“Yemen has one of the highest verified numbers of human rights violations and abuses against children, including cases of abduction, recruitment and acts of sexual violence,” said the UK statement.
The listing was the first UN designation involving Yemen since Sultan Saleh Aida Aida Zabin, the Houthi police chief in Sanaa, was sanctioned in February for a wave of detentions, torture and sexual violence against women activists.
The Houthis, however, have shrugged off sanctions in the past. Group members do not typically hold substantial foreign assets or travel internationally.
The conflict in Yemen began in 2014 when the Houthis seized Sanaa, prompting Saudi Arabia-led forces, backed by the US, to intervene to prop up the ousted government the following year.
The assault on Marib began in February and has intensified in recent weeks. It is the internationally recognised government’s last stronghold in northern Yemen and a Houthi victory there could prove decisive in the conflict after years of countless lives lost and thousands living in constant fear.
The US and UN have been working with Saudi Arabia, Iran and Yemen to broker a peace deal.
Coalition spokesman Gen Turki Al Malki told Reuters on Wednesday that reports of a Saudi military withdrawal from Yemen were “baseless and unfounded".
“Movement and redeployment of troops based on operational and tactical assessment” was a standard operation “in all military forces across the world,” Gen Al Malki said.
He said troops were redeploying in line with a strategy to support Yemeni forces but were not withdrawing. Mr Al Malki also announced early on Thursday morning that the Saudi coalition had carried out “precise air strikes” in Sanaa and Saada, but said the coalition was still exercising restraint. The air strikes targeted ballistic missiles and weapons depots.
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More on animal trafficking
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What is the Supreme Petroleum Council?
The Abu Dhabi Supreme Petroleum Council was established in 1988 and is the highest governing body in Abu Dhabi’s oil and gas industry. The council formulates, oversees and executes the emirate’s petroleum-related policies. It also approves the allocation of capital spending across state-owned Adnoc’s upstream, downstream and midstream operations and functions as the company’s board of directors. The SPC’s mandate is also required for auctioning oil and gas concessions in Abu Dhabi and for awarding blocks to international oil companies. The council is chaired by Sheikh Khalifa, the President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi while Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, is the vice chairman.
EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
THE SPECS
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Transmission: 6-speed automatic
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The specs
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
