Every war-torn country’s tragedy is unique in its own way. So, the global spotlight on Ukraine is valid. But there is also no denying that the escalating and devastating war in Yemen has not got enough attention. The United Nations for long has described it as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. And, it is deepening by the day. To be fair, it happened even before Russia’s President Vladimir Putin invaded his neighbour and Soviet-era comrade-in-arms on February 24.
As we enter March, the Russia-Ukraine war remains the global talking point. But about 6,500 km away, Yemen is faced with a “death sentence”, the UN has said. As many as 8 million Yemenis will likely lose all humanitarian aid in March unless urgent funds are delivered, UN officials have warned. The UN had never before contemplated giving millions of hungry people no food at all.
BUT WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?
Caught in a US-Iran proxy war, Yemen has been ravaged. Tens of thousands of people have died and more than four million men, women and children have been displaced in Yemen’s eight-year-long conflict. And the violence is escalating.
January 2022 saw the highest toll (more than 650 civilians killed or wounded) in Yemen in at least three years. More than 23,000 civilians have been displaced since the beginning of 2022 itself.
Security guards and journalists inspect the site of Saudi-led air strike on a telecommunication station in Sanaa, Yemen. (Photo: REUTERS/File)
On the other hand, January 2022 also saw nearly two-thirds of major UN aid programmes, including life-saving ones, being scaled back or closed. This is when about 80 per cent or around 30 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance and protection, and more than 13 million are in danger of starvation, according to UN estimates.
RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE TO MAKE UKRAINE HELL ON EARTH
The Russian invasion of Ukraine will likely increase fuel and food prices (already doubled in the past year) in Yemen, which would push the country into a “catastrophe”, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.
“We have no choice but to take food from the hungry to feed the starving and, unless we receive immediate funding, in a few weeks we risk not even being able to feed starving,” WFP executive director David Beasley has said.
“This will be hell on earth.”
The WFP has warned that more than 5 million people in Yemen are on the brink of famine, and 50,000 others are living in famine-like conditions.
READ | Indian among 12 injured by falling debris as Saudi blows up drone fired by Yemeni rebels
THE ORIGIN STORY
Yemen is a relatively new country in its current form. After years of fighting, North Yemen and South Yemen joined in 1990 to form Yemen, hoping to bring peace to the country sitting at the mouth of the Red Sea on the Arabian Peninsula.
However, peace did not come to the country. It is still fighting a civil war. Its government, recognised by the United Nations and the large international community, is in exile.
Actually, the unification of Yemen did not pacify all the forces operating in the north and south portions of the country. The anti-government forces, including the Houthi rebels, continued to challenge the unified government.
It came to a break-point in 2011 when President Ali Abdallah Saleh was forced to resign. Saleh had grown unpopular as corruption, unemployment and food security became significant problems.
The Arab Spring uprisings in the region in 2011 made his stay in power impossible. His deputy Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi took over, but he failed to bring the situation under control. Several factions of Yemen’s polity challenged his authority.
ARMED CONFLICT BREAKS OUT IN 2014
When Hadi looked vulnerable, the Houthis upped their ante and gunned for the capital Sanaa. Armed conflict broke out in 2014. Yemen became a shadow boxing ring for Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia, which backs the official government, and Shia-dominated Iran, which supports the Houthi rebels.
The Houthis also got the support of Sunni Muslims, who were disillusioned with the transition of power in Yemen. The Houthis captured much of the country’s north and Sanaa. President Hadi fled to the south and then to Saudi Arabia.
US-BACKED COALITION ENTERS YEMEN IN 2015
A Saudi-led nine-nation coalition, including the UAE, backed logistically by the US, intervened militarily in Yemen in March 2015. Its aim was to push back the Houthis and restore the pro-Gulf government of Yemeni president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. The coalition said the war would be over in weeks. But it has only worsened.
WHO IS FIGHTING WHOM?
This is a difficult question to answer, given how complex and layered Yemen’s web of war is. For the sake of a simplistic explanation, let’s say there are Houthi rebels [in several factions] on the one side. They are known as Ansar Allah and champion Yemen’s Zaidi Shia Muslim minority.
On the other side is the Yemeni government backed by the Saudi-led military coalition. The coalition says the rebels are Iran’s proxies and wants to reverse what it says is growing Iranian influence in the region. The Houthis and Tehran reject the charge.
OTHER PLAYERS
This chaos has also attracted terror outfits such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State to Yemen. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and a local affiliate of the Islamic State (IS) took advantage of the situation by capturing territories.
READ: Former Afghan officials, others killed by Taliban, says UN report
Aden, which gives name to the Arabian Sea’s Gulf of Aden, is being contested between the two. They have occupied territories in the nearby areas. The Gulf of Aden has geostrategic significance as a large number of oil shipments pass through this strait.
WHO CONTROLS WHAT?
The Houthis now control an estimated 80 per cent of Yemen’s territory and have over the years launched multiple missile and drone attacks on neighbouring Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, however, has ensured that the airport in Sanaa remains shut for the Houthis through its blockade programme.
SITUATION WORSENS AFTER BIDEN BECOMES PRESIDENT
When Joe Biden became US President in January 2021, there were hopes that Yemen’s crisis would de-escalate, with expected changes in American foreign policy. But in March 2021, the Houthis rejected a US-backed Saudi proposal for a ceasefire.
They insisted that the coalition must first lift the blockade on Yemen and reopen Sanaa airport. And warfare has only intensified in 2022, particularly since the January 17 Houthi attacks (using drones and missiles) against Abu Dhabi, the first since 2018 that followed losses of territory for the rebels.
There has been an increase in targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure by the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen after that.
There are new waves of displaced people in Yemen and a rising death toll, with airports, hospitals and schools being bombed. For example, at least 80 people were killed in a coalition air raid on a prison in northern Yemen on January 21, 2022. The Saudi-led alliance denied being behind the attack.
HOUTHIS TERROR TAG REMOVED, BUT…
The Trump administration had designated the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), a decision President Biden reversed a year ago. The attacks on the UAE could again see the Houthis being designated as an FTO but that would only intensify warfare and further deepen the crisis.
A security guard and workers inspect damage in a building hit by Saudi-led air strike at a telecommunication station in Sanaa, Yemen. (Photo: REUTERS/File)
FRESH SANCTIONS
On February 23, 2022, the US announced fresh sanctions on an international network linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for allegedly financing the Houthi fighters.
Washington accused the Houthis of prolonging the conflict and urged them to “negotiate in good faith without preconditions” to end the war.
“We continue to work closely with our regional partners to act decisively against those seeking to prolong this war for their own goals,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
“The United States remains firmly committed to helping Saudi Arabia and the UAE defend themselves and the tens of thousands of US citizens living in the Gulf against these Houthi attacks.”
The action came after the Houthis ramped up missile and drone attacks against the US’s ally Saudi Arabia and even started targeting the UAE. The US is in talks with Saudi Arabia and the UAE as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine makes petroleum products costlier and triggers a global supply shortfall.
UNSC RESOLUTION
On February 28, 2022, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted a UAE resolution to extend a 2015 arms embargo that until now targeted some Houthi leaders to the entire rebel group.
WHAT NEXT?
Yemen’s conflict has reached a stalemate because no side has been able to prevail militarily, and thus, the violence is likely to escalate. The United Nations has been trying to bring the two sides to a ceasefire to arrive at a negotiated settlement. But the fighting still has not stopped.Arriving at a solution would require the Saudis, the Emirates and the Houthis sit together and work things out. As the developed Europe’s Ukraine war catches global attention, war devastation in Yemen has enough for the world to wake up and prevent what is left of Yemen from perishing in bombing, hunger and disease.
ALSO READ | UAE shoots down missile fired by Yemen’s Houthis as Israeli president visits