Yemen, the endless war causing the world's worst humanitarian tragedy
The war in Yemen is undergoing a new escalation. After seven years of conflict, there are at least 377,000 deaths, while 20 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. The war in Yemen is undergoing a new escalation. After seven years of conflict, there are at least 377,000 deaths, while 20 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
- A Houthi attack on Abu Dhabi has led to new bombing raids on Yemen by the Saudi-led international coalition.
- The conflict has been going on for seven years. Of the 377,000 total deaths, 60 per cent are victims of indirect effects such as famine and disease.
- Yemen is described as the "world's worst humanitarian catastrophe": 20 million people are in need of urgent assistance.
The end of the war in Yemen, which has been going on for seven years, is looking ever more distant. On 17 January, Houthi rebels carried out an attack with multiple drones on Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. The latter are part of the Saudi-led international coalition that supports government forces in Yemen, while the Shia Houthis, who control around 20 per cent of the territory including the capital Sana'a, are backed by Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Since 2015, a violent conflict has erupted between the parties and their respective foreign allies, which to date has caused at least 377,000 deaths and deepened a humanitarian tragedy described as the most severe in the world. In recent hours, the Saudi-led coalition carried out heavy bombardments against Houthi outposts in the capital Sana'a, causing dozens of deaths. An escalation that makes a peaceful solution to the conflict a distant dream, while the local population sinks ever deeper into poverty.
The attack on Abu Dhabi and the Saudi response
On 17 January, several explosions occurred in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi. One took place near the airport, others close to oil tanks in the southern suburbs. The toll was three dead and six wounded, and responsibility for the attacks was claimed by the Houthis, a predominantly Shia armed group from Yemen that has for years been engaged in a war for control of the country against government forces, backed by the United Arab Emirates as well as by Saudi Arabia.
"This operation, dubbed Hurricane of Yemen, was carried out using 5 ballistic and winged missiles and a large number of drones," stressed the Houthi spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, claiming responsibility for the attack on Abu Dhabi. This is not the first time the Yemeni rebels have attacked the border state: in 2017 the Houthis claimed to have launched a missile at a nuclear power plant under construction, and in subsequent years there were reports of further drone attacks, none of which Abu Dhabi ever confirmed. Attacks outside Yemen have also been carried out by the Houthis on Saudi Arabian soil, as when in 2019 several oil facilities were struck and severely damaged.
God knows what this evening holds for people in Sama’a 💔 #yemen
And it was Saudi Arabia, leading the international coalition against the Houthis, that in recent hours avenged the attack on the Emirates by carrying out a series of heavy bombardments on the positions and encampments of the rebel militias in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen. There were 14 deaths, while in the governorate of Ma'rib, to the east of the capital, the coalition reported having carried out 17 air operations that killed more than 80 rebel fighters.
Seven years of war in Yemen
The international conflict in Yemen has been going on for seven years now, but its origins go back even further. The Arab Spring that erupted in December 2010 in Tunisia and then spread to most of the Maghreb and Middle Eastern countries reached Yemen the following year, where deep-seated protests led to the ousting of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. He was replaced by his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who was viewed with hostility by the Shia Muslim rebel movement the Houthis, loyal to his predecessor.
The transfer of power was never peaceful, and the tensions escalated into full-scale war from 2014. That year the Houthis took control of the northern province of Saada and then began their advance southwards, eventually seizing the capital Sana'a. There they took control of the presidential palace, announced a new government of national unity and forced President Hadi to flee abroad, though he continued to be recognised by the international community as the legitimate holder of power.
As the Houthis sought to press on with their expansion across the country, Saudi Arabia, together with other states in the region (the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, Kuwait, Egypt, Qatar) and with the support of the United States, decided in 2015 to intervene in Yemen, carrying out airstrikes contested by the UN against rebel militias suspected of being backed by Iran.
The country has in short become the stage for a war between rival world powers that could not have broken out more explicitly anywhere else. A conflict in which Italy too has sadly played its part: weapons made in Italy are said to have been used by the Saudi-led coalition on several occasions, causing the deaths of a number of civilians.
Today Yemeni territory is under the control of three different entities. On one side is the government recognised by the international community, headed by President Hadi and relocated to the city of Aden. The latter controls 60 per cent of the country, home to around 12 million inhabitants. Another portion of the nation, including the capital Sana'a, is instead in the hands of the Houthis: this amounts to roughly a quarter of the territory, with a total of 15 million people.
The remaining areas, home to three million people in the southern part of the country, are instead controlled by the Southern Transitional Council. The latter, close to the United Arab Emirates, had in 2019 expelled the internationally recognised government from Aden, triggering a severe crisis within the anti-Houthi coalition. Two other actors — militants from al-Qaeda (Aqap) and the local affiliate of the Islamic State (Stc) — took advantage of this chaos to gain ground in the south. After a few months, however, the Riyadh Agreement was reached, reuniting the forces backed by the international community.
The world's worst humanitarian catastrophe
In recent times the conflict has centred above all on the strategically vital area of Ma'rib, the last true northern stronghold of pro-government forces. At the most difficult moments Saudi Arabia put forward ceasefire proposals, in some cases even implemented unilaterally, but the Houthis' demand for a comprehensive peace agreement that would in effect shut the Hadi government out of negotiations has always come to nothing.
Meanwhile Saudi airstrikes and ground fighting, largely dominated by the Shia rebels, have continued. And little by little the pro-government forces have clawed back ground, causing in the final months of 2021 the deaths of 27,000 Houthi fighters. Overall, according to the United Nations, seven years of conflict in Yemen have resulted in the deaths of 377,000 people. The United Nations Development Programme (Undp) notes that those killed directly as a result of hostilities account for 40 per cent of the total, while the remaining 60 per cent are victims of knock-on effects such as hunger and disease. As a result of the conflict and an already chronically fragile situation, the country has plunged into what is described as "the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe".