UNITED NATIONS – The U.N.’s top official in Yemen is on his way out, sources tell Breitbart News, with the United Nations “actively looking” to quietly push the envoy out the door when his contract runs out in September, all while the Yemen civil war continues to quickly spiral out of control.
Special Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed has been under fire for months for his efforts in attempting to solve the crisis in Yemen, a country that has been torn apart by civil war and has recently been hit by famine and an outbreak of cholera that has claimed at least 1,700 lives.
Iran-aligned Shi’ite rebels took over Yemen’s capital of Sana’a in 2014. After a U.N.-led meditation process broke down in 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition launched airstrikes in 2015. Many officials and experts see the Shi’ite/Sunni conflict as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Houthi officials told Breitbart News that they were unhappy with the job Ahmed had been doing and had refused to talk to the U.N. as long as he was in charge.
“We have decided at the highest level of the Ansar Allah movement that we are no longer going to deal with the U.N. until it changes its envoy because he is the worst thing to ever happen to Yemen – he is incompetent and corrupt, and they need to appoint someone who is impartial and neutral,” Ibrahim Al-Doulaini, a senior Houthi official, said in June.
Privately, Saudi officials also expressed reservations about his job, with one Saudi government official telling Breitbart News that it was time for Ahmed to go – citing his performance as a reason Ahmed’s superior, Director for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, was not allowed into Riyadh on a recent trip to the region to solve the Gulf crisis.
Ahmed, in a recent appearance at the Security Council, painted a grim picture of the situation in Yemen and called for measures to help alleviate the desperate situation.
The humanitarian situation in Yemen is appalling. The people are suffering from war, hunger, and cholera, which has spread further during the last few weeks. The country is not suffering from a single emergency but a number of complex emergencies, which have affected more than 20 million people and whose scale and effect will be felt long after the end of the war. 14 million people are food insecure, of whom almost 7 million are at risk of famine.
He also took a shot at those Yemeni leaders who appeared unsupportive of a peace process. “History will not judge kindly those Yemeni leaders who have used the war to increase their influence or profit from the public finances and Yemeni patience will not last,” he said.
Ahmed also claimed that he had been in touch with Houthi officials, although his office offered no details on the alleged meetings. Ahmed was tossed a lifeline for his job when Chinese Ambassador and Security Council President Liu Jieyi said the Security Council reiterated its support for Ahmed.
Ahmed’s contract ends in September, having been extended for six months in March. U.N. sources tell Breitbart News that the U.N. is looking for a replacement and has decided not to renew his contract – apparently believing that is worth letting him sit out the rest of his contract than firing him outright. One official said that Guterres has asked Feltman’s office to establish a list of potential candidates to replace Ahmed.
“They are now actively looking for a replacement,” one U.N. official said.
Ahmed’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Breitbart News. A spokesman for Secretary-General António Guterres confirmed that Ahmed’s contract was extended, but said he “continues as the envoy for Yemen” and that “[w]e have no change to announce in his status for now.”
Ahmed returned this week from a trip to Cairo where he met with Yemeni, Egyptian, and regional figures. According to a press release, he focused on proposals to keep peace around the vital strategic Hodeidah port in Western Yemen, as well as the resumption of salary payments for public officials and the reopening of Sana’a’s airport for commercial flights.
Ahmed was once rumored to be in line for the position of Special Envoy to Libya, but that position was filled in June by Lebanese academic Ghassan Salamé.
Sources say that Ahmed is aware that he is on his way out of U.N., that there are no new jobs lined up for him and that he is eyeing a future role at a bank in Saudi Arabia. The same sources said there were not yet any names being circulated to replace Ahmed as far as they were aware
Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY
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