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US slashes millions in Yemen aid despite pandemic

As Yemen stares down a coronavirus crisis, the United States is set to slash $73 million in humanitarian assistance because of worsening Houthi aid restrictions.
A man carries a sack of wheat flour he received at a camp for people recently displaced by fighting in Yemen's northern province of al-Jawf between government forces and Houthis, in Marib, Yemen March 8, 2020. Picture taken March 8, 2020. REUTERS/Ali Owidha - RC29GF9R1PMN

The Donald Trump administration is set to eliminate the majority of humanitarian assistance to Yemen amid concerns that a looming coronavirus outbreak will further decimate the war-torn country’s public health sector, which already struggles to cater to millions of immunocompromised Yemenis.

The Trump administration argues that the cuts, first reported by the Washington Post, are necessary because of onerous new aid restrictions on international delivery set up by the Houthi rebels, who control most of northern Yemen.

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