For a while now, news organisations have focused on the Syrian Civil War. It appears that the war is reaching its end-point after over 7 years of fighting, with the rebel-held province of Idlib under siege. However, elsewhere in the Middle-East, civil conflict has been raging for over 3 years, with little media attention.
In 2011, alongside many of its neighbouring countries in a collective movement known as the Arab Spring, Yemen experienced political upheaval. After a series of increasingly violent protests reached its climax in a bombing of the presidential palace, November 2011 saw President Ali Abdullah Saleh forcefully step-down from his 21 year tenure. He left Adrabbuh Mansur Hadi, vice-president at the time, in charge of the country.
Nevertheless, Yemen continued to be subjected to unrest in Saada, an impoverished province in the north of the country. The violent insurgency of 2004 to 2010, led by the originally peaceful Houthi movement, flared up again upon a change in the presidency.
Despite continual bombings from Al-Qaeda on Sana’a, the capital, it was not them who seized the capital at the end of 2014, but the Houthis. President Hadi was under pressure - his proposals of shared power were rejected and he was forced to flee South to the city of Aden.
Since then, Yemen has been at civil war, opposing the Houthi rebels to the Saudi-backed governmental forces. While President Hadi is being upheld by Sunni Arab states, his predecessor decided to support the other side, presumably in a bid to regain power. However, in late 2017 he grew impatient and tried to cut a deal restoring power for his family, but was killed attempting to flee the capital soon after. In the past three and half years, no major ground has been gained by either side. While the Houthis have attempted to take Aden, they have not been successful.
Although Iran denies US accusations that it is arming the rebels, many see Yemen as an opportunity for old Sunni-Shiite clashes to be renewed, mainly between Saudi Arabia and Iran. This involvement has had devastating consequences - not only in terms of fighting (10,000 have been killed as estimated by the UN since 2015) but from disease and starvation - (600,000 have contracted cholera since 2017), according to the same report. Nevertheless, it is difficult to gain accurate statistics due to the precarious situation - Medicins sans Frontières, an international humanitarian medical non-governmental organisation of French origin, have withdrawn from the area due to safety reasons, but Save the Children, also an international non-governmental organisation but which promotes children's rights, puts the child death toll at 50,000 for 2017 only.
It remains to be seen as to which side will win the conflict - but with the country in ruins, facing famine and disease, will it really be seen as a victory? And why is it that war crimes are being committed - airstrikes on civilians, rape, torture, child soldiers - and are those responsible not facing the consequences?
Sources:
Cumming-Bruce, N. “War Crimes Report on Yemen Accuses Saudi Arabia and U.A.E” August 28th 2018, The New York Times (date accessed: September 11th 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/world/middleeast/un-yemen-war-crimes.html
“Key Facts About the War in Yemen” March 25th 2018, Al Jazeera (date accessed: September 28th 2018) https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/06/key-facts-war-yemen-160607112342462.html
McDowall, A. “Why Yemen is at War” June 15th 2018, Reuters (date accessed: 1st October 2018) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-explainer/why-yemen-is-at-war-idUSKBN1JB1TE
“Yemen Crisis: Who is Fighting Whom?” January 30th 2018, BBC News (date accessed: September 2nd 2018), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29319423
“Yemen Uprising of 2011-2012” February 27th 2012, Encyclopedia Britannica (date accessed: September 15th 2018), https://www.britannica.com/event/Yemen-Uprising-of-2011-2012