The Yemen Crisis
Written by Kriti Swarup
What is justice to you?
Yusra is a six-year-old girl from Yemen — a country left desolate by an ongoing civil war. She battles eye cancer. Although treatment is available in a neighbouring country, the blockades restrict her from receiving what she needs. Yusra is malnourished and lives in a shack because her home has been blown up by air strikes.
Is this justice to you?
Is the conversion of playgrounds to graveyards justice?
Is the incessant fear of being killed by an airstrike justice?
The democratization process initiated by the Arab Spring movement compelled the authoritarian leader of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to transfer power to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, in 2011. Since then, Yemen’s socio-economic status went steeply downhill. Riddled with unemployment, food insecurity, corruption, discrimination toward Shia Muslims, and jihadist attacks, the people began to lose faith in their president.
Taking advantage of President Hadi’s vulnerable position, Houthi rebels, comprising of Yemen’s Shia Muslim minority who defended Saleh during his reign, took control of the Saada province in northern Yemen and other adjacent areas.
The Houthis are militarily backed up by Iran — a regional Shia power — ex-ruler Saleh, and other Yemenis. This allowed the Houthi rebels to take control of the entire country by 2015, causing President Hadi to seek refuge abroad.
Even an uneducated guess could conjecture what followed: chaos
Wary of the rising power of the Houthis, Saudi Arabia formed a coalition with eight other Sunni Arab states determined to end Iranian influence in Yemen and reinstate Hadi’s government. The coalition began an air-strike campaign to defeat the Houthis, with the United States lending Saudi Arabia 110 billion dollars worth of weapons and intelligence for their military to prepare for attacks on the Houthis, inevitably most affecting civilians. As of October 2019, there have been approximately 12,000 civilian deaths.
Why would America help bring back an ineffective government through violent means?
While it initially sounds highly delusional, they had two reasons to support the Saudi forces. Firstly, the United States thought of the attacks as a counterterrorism strategy for the Middle East, preventing Yemen from becoming a ‘safe haven’ for Al-Qaeda, thus evading any attacks on the west. Secondly, the Yemen campaign is of utmost importance to Saudi Arabia, and because of their strong alliance with the nation built upon mutual benefit, the campaign becomes of utmost importance to the United States as well.
It is now up to you to decide whether these reasons are enough to bring infinite political unrest in an indefinitely struggling economy.
Air strikes, in addition to wrecking homes, schools, and hospitals, destroyed a port in Al-Hudaydah, which was Yemen’s way of receiving food and humanitarian aid. This triggered a widespread famine, resulting in the death of 85,000 children with acute malnutrition between 2015 and 2018.
A war predicted to last ‘only a few weeks’ by Saudi officials has become four years of military stalemate.
The Houthis stood strong in northwestern Yemen and launched ballistic missile and drone attacks on the capital city of Saudi Arabia in 2017. Infuriated, the Saudi-led coalition tightened their blockade of Yemen to prevent Iran from smuggling weapons for the rebels, which resulted in nothing more than increased food insecurity. Militants from Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State seized the vulnerability of Yemen by capturing territory in the south and leading attacks in Aden.
Over the course of two more years, Saleh was killed by the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition attempted to break the stalemate by taking over Hudaydah. The United Arab Emirates, an important ally of Saudi Arabia, withdrew forces and backed a new party called ‘STC’ to fight against Saudi forces. Sweden attempted to implement a ceasefire, but no agreement was made. Deals to share power were offered and rejected. Peace talks by the UN were initiated, but were inconclusive.
Adding to the dislocation, disease, famine, violence, terrorism and unrest, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit Yemen. Could it potentially stop the war?
Saudi Arabia announced a unilateral ceasefire. However, the Houthis rejected it, demanding its enemy to lift the blockades. Millions of innocent Yemenis have been caught between convoluted perceptions of justice and redundant political agendas. It is truly a desolate and shameful occurrence for all of humanity. While the concepts of justice and fairness are subjective, many wonder what it will take for governments to realize the extinction of a country is on the opposite end of the tunnel.
Dear Reader,
Please take a moment to acknowledge the Yemenis who were victims of the civil war.
DISCLAIMER: The words of the authors are their own. The Archive does not affiliate with or hold any liability for anything stated by any contributor.
This piece has also been published in out magazine, and can be found here.
Bibliography
- Coronavirus: Five Reasons Why It Is so Bad in Yemen.” BBC News, BBC, 21 June 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53106164
- “COVID-19 in Yemen: Saudi Coalition Ceasefire Declared in Bid to Contain Coronavirus | | UN News.” United Nations, United Nations, news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1061422.
- Ferguson, Jane. “Fighting, Starvation and Disease Yield Grim Crisis in Yemen.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 28 Dec. 2018, www.pbs.org/newshour/show/fighting-starvation-and-disease-yield-grim-crisis-in-yemen.
- “Stories from Yemen: Helping Yemenis Survive the Crisis.” World Bank, www.worldbank.org/en/country/yemen/publication/stories-from-yemen-helping-yemenis-survive-the-crisis.
- Stone, Mark. “Coronavirus Will ‘Delete Yemen from Maps All over the World’.” Sky News, Sky, 18 May 2020, news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-will-delete-yemen-from-maps-all-over-the-world-11989917.
- “Yemen Crisis: Why Is There a War?” BBC News, BBC, 19 June 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29319423.