The Yemeni Civil War

Since 2004, The Houthi movement which is officially known as Ansar Allah has been leading an revolution against the military in Yemen. Ten years later in 2014, tensions between Houthis and government forces escalated into a civil war and, with the support of protests in 2011 Arab Spring, Yemen’s President Saleh was pushed to hand power to his deputy, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. The transition was not smooth where when security forces withdrew from outlying provinces, the Houthi rebels took advantage and captured the territory in the north. The Houthis were gaining support and popularity from Yemenis who were tired and fed up from the past regime. By the end of 2014, the Houthi forces occupied Yemen’s capital city, Sanaa and in 2015, President Hadi fled Yemen. Due to Hadi’s appeal to the international community, Saudi Arabia led a coalition of Arab states in attempt to restore full power to the Yemen Government and so relentless airstrikes and ground offensives were executed resulting in the killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians (ShelterBox, 2023).

In 2015, a Yemeni civil war broke out resulting in widespread suffering among civilians due to bombings, food shortages, disease outbreaks, and displacement creating one of the world’s most devastating humanitarian crises (Britannica, 2024). In 2021, the United Nations reported that the death toll from Yemen’s war will reach 377,000 by the end of the year including those killed as a result of indirect and direct causes. Back then, the United Nations Development Programme estimated that 70 percent of those killed would be children under the age of five. Moreover, 60 percent of deaths would have been the result of indirect causes, such as hunger and preventable diseases, with the remainder a result of direct causes like front-line combat and air raids (Al Jazeera, 2021). A total of 204,291 suspected cholera cases and 53 associated deaths were reported during the first ten months of 2020 (WHO, 2020). Moreover, the United Nations has found that international law was violated by attacking civilian targets and destructing a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in 2015. Other war crimes committed by both parties involved forced disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrests (CFR, 2023).

The humanitarian crisis in Yemen has been able to dissolve any cultural, religious, or political differences and, in fact, unify people in standing against what is happening in Yemen. People from all around the world stand with the Yemeni people despite of which side they are supporting. Therefore, it is witnessed that both Western and Arab media and activists are taking interest in the events and are following previous and current events.

References

Al Jazeera (2021) Yemen war deaths will reach 377,000 by end of the Year: UN, Al Jazeera. Available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/23/un-yemen-recovery-possible-in-one-generation-if-war-stops-now  

Britannica (2024) Yemeni Civil War, Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/Yemeni-Civil-War  

CFR (2023) Yemen’s tragedy: War, stalemate, and suffering, Council on Foreign Relations. Available at: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/yemen-crisis#chapter-title-0-6

ShelterBox (2023) The Yemen Crisis explained, ShelterBox. Available at: https://shelterbox.org/disasters-explained/the-yemen-crisis-explained/  

WHO (2020) SITUATION REPORT OCTOBER 2020 ISSUE NO.10 Yemen Update, World Health Organization. Available at: http://www.emro.who.int/images/stories/yemen/who_situation_report_june2020.pdf?ua=1