DUBAI: Houthi militias are using civilians as human shields in Hodeidah, Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed told the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen during their meeting on Tuesday.

“The Iranian-backed Houthi militia controls the city, takes civilians as human shields, deprives them of humanitarian aid and sells it in the market for their personal gain and to finance their wars,” the Yemeni prime minister said.

At the meeting in the interim capital of Aden with Lise Grande, the prime minister discussed the efforts and projects of the United Nations in Yemen during the last period and the situation in Hodeidah.

He urged the UN and international organizations to provide more assistance to those affected in Yemen, suffering from the humanitarian crisis that has resulted from the war being waged by the militia against Yemeni people.

The prime minister urged aid organizations to open their offices in the Aden to ensure delivery of projects and supplies to Yemenis affected by the war in all areas.

Meanwhile, Yemeni Minister of Endowments and Guidance, Ahmad Attiya said that reinstating political leadership to the internationally recognized government and liberating Hodeidah from the Houthis was inevitable.

“The Houthi militias do not believe in peace and co-existence because they are a militia that receives its guidance from Iran and is trying to change the identity of Yemen and extract it from its Arab surroundings,” he said at a lecture given at the University of Saba in the Yemeni province of Marib.

Attiya claimed that the Houthi militias manipulate young people and recruit them into their wars, violating international human rights laws.