The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen seized US funded equipment, together with automobiles, after the Trump administration suspended and slashed humanitarian funding round the world and started dismantling the US Agency of International Development.
Former US officers advised the NCS the seizure of greater than $122,000 price of equipment in 2025, was a consequence of the velocity of the Trump administration funding cuts and the drastic modifications at USAID.
According to these former officers, USAID officers and humanitarian employees had warned that these sudden modifications – which the administration stated have been made to fight waste of taxpayer assets – may result in US-funded items falling into hostile hands.
“You have to ask yourself – did we, by all of a sudden pulling out all of this aid, did we unwittingly help (the Houthis)?” one former authorities official stated.
The seizure was revealed by the USAID watchdog in early April. NCS spoke to a number of former US authorities officers who stated the group’s sudden dismantling created a vacuum which the US adversary was in a position to exploit.
The US is traditionally the largest donor of humanitarian support to Yemen, the place thousands and thousands depend on the help. At the starting of the administration’s suspension of humanitarian support, officers stated funding for Yemen was not affected. But that all of a sudden modified in April when the administration terminated all of its humanitarian awards for work in Yemen.
“Within 24 to 48 hours, 100% of the portfolio was gone,” the former official stated.
Under regular circumstances, the officers stated, humanitarian organizations which are not going to obtain funding will work with USAID on what known as a “disposition plan.” Those plans are meant to make sure that US-funded belongings are used “in the best interest of the United States,” and may see equipment or items transferred to different organizations or different nations or disposed of to make sure they aren’t wasted, stolen or misused.
The plans usually are reviewed by a number of officers earlier than receiving remaining approval, and so they normally take a number of months, the former official stated.
“In this case, none of that happened,” they stated. The Trump administration had already put most USAID employees on depart and furloughed or laid off 1000’s of contractors when contracts for Yemen have been lower. Staff members who remained weren’t allowed to speak with humanitarian companions on the floor.
“Partners wouldn’t even know whom to contact, and they weren’t getting any callbacks,” one other former US authorities official advised NCS.
“Not only did we not have any guidance for them – in fact we were not even allowed to acknowledge the receipt of an email – they couldn’t spend any money to dispose of the items responsibly and they didn’t know who they were allowed to give it to,” the first former official stated.
There have been only a few organizations who may have taken the belongings, as a result of US assist “was so central to the humanitarian response” in Yemen. As such, the humanitarian organizations have been left in limbo about what to do with the US-funded items, together with meals, hygiene kits and equipment, now that the funding was lower off.
The scenario was particularly difficult in northern Yemen, which is basically managed by the Houthis. The Iranian-backed Houthis have been one occasion to Yemen’s yearslong civil warfare that plunged the nation into famine. Days after taking workplace for a second time period, President Donald Trump re-designated the group as a overseas terrorist group.
If there had been sufficient time, the second former official stated they believed they might have labored with the UN or different events on a plan that may permit them to switch US-funded belongings to southern Yemen, the place the Houthis weren’t the de-facto authorities and the inhabitants continues to be in determined want. That didn’t occur.
There have been efforts to warn of the dangers of Houthi seizure in mild of the sudden and wholesale cuts to funding and the lack of steerage on disposition plans. It is unclear if these warnings reached the senior management at USAID or the State Department.
“It was so sudden, and partners were already saying, ‘What are we going to do with our assets? What if the Houthis confiscate the assets?” the second former officers stated, noting they have been notably involved about violating legal guidelines that prohibit financial or different assist for terrorists given the re-designation of the Houthis.
“We had said the Houthis have already started to seize assets, and this is going to be an issue and a concern for partners, and a concern for us also because it’s USAID-funded equipment, funded assets,” this official stated. “When it was raised to our leadership, they were like, yes, yes, we’re aware.”
“Organizations were really, really scared. Particularly because the Houthis have kidnapped, tortured, and killed both USG, UN, and NGO staff for less,” the first former official stated. “Now there were assets in play and very quickly, so you had the Houthis just coming in and starting to take stuff by force.”
Asked about the OIG findings and the warnings and considerations from former officers, a State Department spokesperson didn’t instantly reply the questions.
“The Houthis are terrorists who are wholly uninterested in helping Yemenis,” the spokesperson stated. They acknowledged that “within Yemen, the terrorist Houthis continue to round up and detain dozens of local staff members of the UN, NGOs, and diplomatic missions under abysmal conditions, including current and former Yemeni staff of the United States government unlawfully held based on false accusations.”
In one instance, a associate group had USAID-funded items in a warehouse in northern Yemen, however when funding was suspended, it couldn’t pay for the warehouse anymore. Remaining USAID officers “couldn’t give them any disposition guidance because Washington wouldn’t answer emails,” the official described, including that it was very seemingly the Houthis took the belongings.
“We kept hearing of reports of Houthi trucks, flatbed trucks, full of USAID equipment,” they famous.
The investigative abstract launched by the USAID Inspector General’s Office stated that it was knowledgeable in June 2025 of the Houthi seizure of US authorities funded-equipment, together with automobiles and “other physical inventory,” from a USAID-funded support group.
“OIG’s investigation found evidence that, after the termination of the aid organization’s USAID-funded award, it ceased operations in Yemen and sought to donate its U.S.-government-funded assets, to include vehicles and other physical inventory, in accordance with award requirements. However, Houthi representatives required the awardee to inventory and transfer the assets to the Houthis. The awardee complied due to concerns about the safety of its local and international staff,” the abstract stated.
The inspector basic’s workplace had additionally warned in a report final February that the Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and its sweeping freeze on overseas support has made it tougher to trace potential misuse of US taxpayer-funded humanitarian help and will finish up unintentionally supporting terrorist teams.
“Recent widespread staffing reductions across the Agency…coupled with uncertainty about the scope of foreign assistance waivers and permissible communications with implementers, has degraded USAID’s ability to distribute and safeguard taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance,” that report stated. The USAID inspector basic was fired someday after that report was launched.
On Yemen, the former officers stated USAID may have diminished the threat of the seizure of the belongings it had been accomplished in a extra phased approach.
“If they had given us even a little bit of a heads up, we could have reduced our liabilities in the north, but because they did it with no notice and then adamantly refused to provide any responsible guidance, it really left our partners in an impossible position and handed the Houthis a huge win in terms of assets,” the first former official stated.