# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Middle East

Yemen's seven-year civil war could turn on fierce fighting in remote Marib province

Soldiers sit Aug. 15 near the front line west of Marib city, Yemen.

Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience.

MARIB, Yemen - The young men pour into the hospital straight from the front lines, their limbs broken or missing, their skin burned by missiles and drones, bullet wounds in their heads and necks. Their relatives follow, keeping vigil next to their cots or producing permission slips to carry those who have succumbed to the cemetery across town, where row after row of identical headstones now stretch out in the sand.

This grim flood has been relentless over recent months because of the unceasing determination of the two main sides in Yemen's civil war to win what could be the pivotal battle of the seven-year conflict.

In harsh desert terrain on the outskirts of Marib, Iran-backed Houthi rebels are fighting the internationally recognized government, backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, for control of its strategic stronghold in the country's north.

If the Houthis were to seize control of the province, also called Marib, this would award the group near-total control of northern Yemen, access to key oil and gas infrastructure, and an upper hand in talks aimed at ending the conflict. For government forces, this would mark an enormous setback.

More than 1 million civilians fleeing fighting elsewhere have streamed into Marib province in recent years, and many could now be displaced again as the battle inches closer. Some, including children, have already been killed and wounded by missile attacks and shelling.

This year, the Houthis rejected a cease-fire offer from Saudi Arabia that could have ended this bloodletting, saying they will agree to discuss a truce only once the airport in the capital, Sanaa, is reopened and all restrictions are lifted from the port of Hodeida. The Saudi-led coalition continues to control the country's airspace and the port, a crucial lifeline for the country, which is submerged in what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The Houthis have instead pressed their campaign to wrest control of Marib province. To hold the Houthis back, government troops and allied local forces have dug trenches into hillsides and positioned themselves atop the peaks that dot the arid landscape, using the high ground to fire across the sandy expanse.

They are bolstered by frequent Saudi airstrikes against Houthi positions nearby. But the government forces are themselves vulnerable to Houthi missile and drone strikes.

"Facing the ballistic missiles and drones, this is the biggest problem," said Lt. Gen. Sagheer bin Aziz, chief of staff of the Yemeni army, speaking near the front line west of Marib city. The interview was briefly interrupted when a Houthi drone was spotted overhead, forcing soldiers and Washington Post journalists to scramble to a safer location.

The Houthis have stepped up those missile and drone attacks in response to Saudi airstrikes, according to Dhaifallah al-Shami, minister of information in Houthi-controlled Sanaa, saying that "it's one eye for another."

At least 1,700 government troops in Marib province have been killed and around 7,000 wounded so far this year in such attacks as well as by persistent sniper fire and other hostilities, bin Aziz said. The Houthis, who do not release official death counts, are also believed by analysts to be sustaining serious casualties, largely due to the Saudi airstrikes.

Soldiers exchange fire with Houthi rebels west of Marib on Aug. 15.

Lt. Gen. Sagheer bin Aziz, bottom left, sits near a front-line position outside Marib on Aug. 15, 2021.

Soldiers walk to a hilltop position outside Marib.

A soldier rides to a front-line position outside Marib in August.

'This war has made us grow old'

Ammar Abu Saleh, 29, lost his left leg in a land mine explosion in 2018 while fighting on the front lines with government forces, he said, and then had it amputated after he was taken hostage by the Houthis. Eventually, he was released in a prisoner exchange, fitted for a prosthetic and sent back to the front line.

But late last year, he came under fire and had to leave his new leg behind.

Since then, he has continued to fight anyway, operating a machine gun in the mountains outside of Marib. "It's easier with the leg," he said, but the disadvantage is not enough to keep him home. "I feel I was made to fight."

On a recent day, Abu Saleh briefly left his position on the front line to travel into town and join the growing line of people waiting for new legs at the general hospital.

There, the miseries of the war are on full display. Outside, young men missing legs lean on crutches or practice walking laps with new prosthetics provided through a Saudi-funded rehabilitation center, where the waiting list for new limbs has soared in the past year.

Inside, hospital staff described a relentless cycle of traumatic cases that have left them exhausted. "There is rising pressure day by day," said Mohammed Abdo al-Qubati, head of the hospital authority. The facility now treats few civilians, given a constant influx of wounded soldiers.

Upstairs, Haroon Abdullah, 20, was resting, propping up his burned and broken leg as he recovered from what he described as a drone attack on his position outside of Marib in early August. "At around noon, we heard the sound of the drone buzzing, then it just exploded," he recalled.

The drones are "continuous," he said, "dropping four to five bombs each day."

His latest injury marks the fourth time he has been badly wounded in the war. Behind him, photos of troops killed on the front line peeled off the chipped wall. All around him lay other young men recently wounded on the battlefield. "This war has made us grow old," Abdullah said.

Even children have been aged by battle. In the nearby surgical ICU, a boy who said he was 15 years old recounted how he had been shot while fighting on the front lines for the Houthis about 11 months ago. The gunshot caused a spinal injury that left him paralyzed.

Al-Shami, the minister, denied that any children are fighting for the Houthis and said that any such claims are "not true."

Badr al-Mufa, left, said to be 18 years old, is seen in August in Marib after being injured in June by a Houthi drone or missile.

Hussein al-Subari, left, and Ammar Abu Saleh have both lost legs in the fighting.

Medical personnel at the Marib hospital take measurements Aug. 14 to make prosthetic legs for soldiers injured in the war.

Haroon Abdullah, 20, seen Aug. 16, was recently injured by a Houthi drone strike near Marib, but the soldier said he is willing to go back to his post as soon as he recovers.

Marib 'stumbling block'

The battle for this strategic province is hampering renewed efforts to put an end to the war, analysts say, with talks largely stalled.

"What we see is full-on determination by the Houthis to take Marib," said Timothy Lenderking, who President Biden appointed as U.S. special envoy for Yemen. And the battle for the province, he said, is "the stumbling block" in negotiations.

Early this year, the Biden administration, eager to distance itself from the widely criticized conflict, withdrew its support for the Saudi-led coalition's offensive operations and reversed a Trump administration decision labeling the Houthis a terrorist group. That designation threatened to interfere with international aid efforts, relief groups said.

The withdrawal of U.S. support "affected our morale as leaders," said bin Aziz, the army chief of staff. "We want our American friends to reconsider this decision."

After Saudi aircraft roared overhead, he described the sound of their airstrikes as "the best symphony." Government forces have held the Houthis back largely through that support, analysts said, although the rebels have recently made some notable advances.

"You can't really win a war with air power," said Elana DeLozier, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "And this is where the government really gets itself into trouble because it doesn't have enough oomph to push out the Houthis, so it's just the Saudi airstrikes [holding them back]."

Jamila Saleh Ali Duma, 27, sits with her son and mother in law in their house in Marib on Aug. 17. Her husband, Taher, and 2-year-old daughter, Layan, died in a Houthi missile attack at a gas station in June.

An Ethiopian migrant helps to build a tent last month for a displaced Yemeni family at a refugee camp in Marib.

Many of the families at this refugee camp in Marib recently left another camp that had been threatened by nearby fighting.

A new cemetery, seen in mid-August, has been established near an older one to accommodate civilian and military casualties.

'I have no one but him'

A sense of dread is closing in on those Yemenis who fled fighting elsewhere for what they believed would be the safe haven of Marib.

Jamila Saleh Ali Duma's family abandoned their home in Amran province several years ago and now lives in a cramped apartment in Marib. In June, a missile struck a gas station where Duma's husband, Taher, was in line, burning alive him and their 2-year-old daughter, Layan, she said.

Al-Shami, the Houthi minister, said that the strike targeted a "military site" and that their forces "would never intentionally kill a child."

Now, Duma is afraid to allow her son outside. "I have no one but him," she said. "There's no way I'm going to let him go out."

Fatima Mohammed al-Sharafi's family fled for the fourth time this spring, seeking refuge in a camp on the outskirts of the city. Soon after, strong winds ripped through the area, knocking over their tent on top of her infant daughter, killing her, al-Sharafi said.

When asked her daughter's name, she paused for around 10 seconds, stunned at her own inability to recall.

Then it came to her.

"Amal," she cried out. The only way she has been able to cope with the loss, she added, has been "by trying to forget her."

The body of a soldier killed in action is loaded into a vehicle at Marib general hospital Aug. 18.

Family members of two soldiers killed in action gather at the Marib hospital morgue Aug. 18. Abdo al-Kahli was killed in June, while Ibrahim al-Qamhi was killed the following month.

Family members and comrades of the two soldiers gather Aug. 18 at the Marib cemetery.

Mourners gather Aug. 18 to remember soldiers Abdo al-Kahli and Ibrahim al-Qamhi.

2 burials

Ibrahim al-Qamhi and Abdo al-Kahli did not know each other in life. But on a recent morning, as a crowd of men and boys gathered outside the morgue at the hospital, the bodies of the two soldiers, shrouded in white cloths, were loaded into an ambulance side by side.

Al-Qamhi was killed in a strike by a missile or drone, fellow fighters said. Al-Kahli was killed by a planted explosive, his relatives said.

Their young and serious faces were the latest to adorn memorial fliers heralding them as martyrs for a great cause that were distributed before their funerals.

As they were buried, their friends, back from the battlefield for the ceremonies, bemoaned the conditions on the ground. "Drones are what's causing us problems on the front line," said Bilal Abdullah, 38, adding that they also need antimissile defenses. But the troops are prepared to continue defending Marib from Houthi advances, Abdullah said, even if it means to "sacrifice ourselves."

Nearby, al-Qamhi's father knelt by his son's freshly buried body, gently packing the sand around a photo propped against his headstone.

Then he stood up and slowly walked away, hanging his head as he passed rows of other new graves shimmering faintly in the late-morning light.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Middle East Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience. MARIB, Yemen - The young men pour into the hospital straight from the front lines, their limbs broken or missing, their skin burned by missiles and drones, bullet wounds in their heads and necks.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Saudi Arabia's unique role in the Arab and Islamic worlds, its possession of the world's largest reserves of oil, and its strategic location all play a role in the long-standing bilateral relationship between the Kingdom and the United States. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have a common interest in preserving the stability, security, and prosperity of the Gulf region and consult closely on a wide range of regional and global issues. Saudi Arabia plays an important leadership role in working toward a peaceful and prosperous future for the region and is a strong partner in security and counterterrorism efforts, providing military, diplomatic, and financial cooperation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Saudi Arabia - United States Department of State

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Saudi Arabia's unique role in the Arab and Islamic worlds, its possession of the world's largest reserves of oil, and its strategic location all play a role in the long-standing bilateral relationship between the Kingdom and the United States. The U.S.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
(Beirut) - The Saudi-led coalition's broad restrictions on aid and essential goods to Yemen's civilian population are worsening the country's humanitarian catastrophe, Human Rights Watch said today. Unless the coalition immediately stops blocking aid and commercial goods from reaching civilians in Houthi-controlled territory, the United Nations Security Council should impose travel bans and asset freezes on senior coalition leaders, including the Saudi crown prince and defense minister, Mohammed bin Salman.

The coalition has imposed a naval and air blockade on Yemen since the current conflict began in March 2015 that has severely restricted the flow of food, fuel, and medicine to civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law. The coalition closed all of Yemen's entry points in response to a missile strike on Saudi's Riyadh airport on November 4, 2017, by opposing Houthi-Saleh forces. While the coalition eased some restrictions in late November, it continues to prevent much aid and nearly all commercial imports from reaching Houthi-controlled ports, which has an unlawfully disproportionate impact on civilians' access to essential goods.

"The Saudi-led coalition's military strategy in Yemen has been increasingly built around preventing desperately needed aid and essential goods from reaching civilians, risking millions of lives," said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. "The Security Council should urgently sanction Saudi and other coalition leaders responsible for blocking food, fuel, and medicine, causing hunger, sickness, and death."

Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, depends heavily on imported food, medicine, and fuel for 80 to 90 percent of the population's needs. As of November, seven million people were dependent on food aid to survive, and nearly a million may have cholera. Diphtheria, a disease that should be preventable, was spreading, and had already killed more than 20 people and infected nearly 200. An estimated 2 million children are acutely malnourished. Half the country's hospitals have been closed and nearly 16 million people lack access to clean water.

Reopening all of Yemen's land, air, and sea ports to commercial shipments, which before November made up 80 percent of all imports, is crucial to any effort to address what the UN has described as the world's "worst humanitarian crisis," Human Rights Watch said.

Claiming a need to strengthen vetting procedures, the coalition halted all humanitarian flights and shipments to Yemen for several days following the November 4 attack and halted all humanitarian flights and shipments to ports in Houthi-controlled territory for about three weeks. On November 22, the coalition announced that it would allow humanitarian flights to resume to the capital, Sanaa, and "urgent humanitarian and relief materials" to begin moving to the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida.

Major restrictions on the delivery of essential goods to the civilian population remain, Human Rights Watch said. While a limited number of food shipments have reached Houthi ports on an ad hoc basis since November 22, the coalition has not indicated whether it will allow seaports under Houthi control to reopen to commercial shipments, including fuel and medicine.

The World Food Programme estimated that even with a partial lifting of the blockade, an additional 3.2 million people would be pushed into hunger and 150,000 malnourished children could die in the coming months.

On December 2, the heads of seven humanitarian agencies issued a joint statement calling on the coalition to lift restrictions: "Without the urgent resumption of commercial imports, especially food, fuel and medicines, millions of children, women and men risk mass hunger, disease and death," they said.

Fighting broke out in Sanaa on December 1 between the Houthis and formerly allied forces loyal to former longtime president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Dozens of people, including civilians, were killed and wounded in the fighting. On December 4, Houthi forces killed Saleh under circumstances that remain unclear. During the fighting, civilians already facing shortages of essential goods were reportedly rapidly running out of food, fuel, and medicine. Humanitarian organizations were unable to reach their warehouses to deliver aid to those in need.

Coalition military actions have violated laws-of-war prohibitions on restricting humanitarian assistance and on destroying objects essential to the survival of the civilian population. These violations, as well as the coalition's disregard for the reported suffering of the civilian population, suggest that the coalition may also be violating the prohibition against using starvation as a method of warfare, which is a war crime.

The Security Council should urgently sanction Saudi and other coalition leaders responsible for blocking food, fuel, and medicine, causing hunger, sickness, and death.

legal and policy director

The UN Security Council should impose a travel ban and asset freeze on senior leaders of the coalition, including Mohamed bin Salman, for their role in violations of international humanitarian law in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said. Under Security Council Resolution 2216, the Yemen Sanctions Committee can designate "individuals or entities" for targeted sanctions if they are "engaging in or providing support for" acts that "[obstruct] the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Yemen or access to, or distribution of, humanitarian assistance in Yemen."

The Sanctions Committee has already imposed sanctions - including asset freezes and travel bans - on five leaders of formerly allied Houthi-Saleh forces, including Saleh. No one from the coalition has been designated for sanctions, despite information on repeated coalition violations, including the obstruction of aid, gathered by the UN Panel of Experts, which provides information on implementing the resolution.

"UN Security Council members, particularly the United States, United Kingdom, France, and other coalition allies, have shielded Saudi Arabia from serious international scrutiny even though the Saudi-led coalition has committed numerous atrocities in Yemen," Ross said. "The Security Council urgently needs to act against coalition leaders who have added to Yemen's humanitarian catastrophe or share in the blame."
Yemen's Deepening Humanitarian Crisis
Since March 2015, Human Rights Watch has conducted dozens of interviews with health professionals and humanitarian workers in Yemen regarding restrictions on access to aid and essential goods and their impact on the civilian population. Human Rights Watch also has reviewed coalition statements and UN and humanitarian community assessments on Yemen. Human Rights Watch previously documented actions by both the Saudi-led coalition and formerly allied Houthi-Saleh forces that impeded aid delivery to civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law.
Impact of Fuel Shortages
On November 6, the Saudi-led coalition imposed a full blockade on Yemen, which was partially lifted over the ensuing days and weeks. A humanitarian agency official said the "most immediate impact" of the November blockade was on fuel supply. Fuel was already often not available throughout Yemen - including in areas under Yemeni government control, such as Aden, which has repeatedly experienced fuel shortages. On November 23, the World Food Programme estimated that supplies of fuel and diesel in the country could run out in the coming weeks. The lack of fuel also makes it more difficult to pump clean water, run hospital equipment, and safely store vaccines.

Houthi and Saleh forces also contributed to the fuel shortages. The UN Panel of Experts reported in June that Houthi-Saleh forces had earned up to US$1.14 billion from fuel and oil distribution on the black market. They also use imported fuel for military purposes.

Officials at five hospitals in the Yemeni governorates of Hodeida, Taizz, and Sanaa told Human Rights Watch that after November 6 the lack of fuel was having a "catastrophic" impact on their operations. Four of the five hospitals - including the two largest in Yemen - were entirely dependent on generators, powered by fuel, to operate. The hospitals serve thousands of people.

Dr. Nasr al-Qadsi, the general director of Yemen's second-largest hospital, in Sanaa, said the hospital needed 60,000 liters of fuel a month to power its generators, generate oxygen, and run its ambulances and buses for staff. After November 6, the hospital's water supplier stopped providing water, telling the hospital it would have to supply the fuel to get more water. "Water and electricity and oxygen are very essential," al-Qadsi said. "And we have problems getting all of them."

Dr. Abdul Latif Abu Taleb, the head of Yemen's largest hospital, also in Sanaa, which can admit about 1,000 patients, said that the November 6 decision "caused us great panic... direct[ing] all our concerns to the pursuit of the necessary diesel material to keep the hospital working." He added: "I have 105 patients in the intensive care unit on monitors and respirator devices. If the hospital power supply stopped, a disaster will happen."

Fuel is also crucial to provide access to clean water in the country. Less than a week after the November blockade was put in place, the UN reported fuel prices had increased by 60 percent in Sanaa and trucked-water by 133 percent. Three weeks after the blockade began, hospital officials in two governorates reported huge price increases - up to 300 percent - if fuel was available at all. "The prices jumped to the sky, so we couldn't afford buying it," one doctor said. Other doctors said they had diverted all hospital revenue, much of which they would normally have spent on medicine and medical supplies, to buy diesel.

Rising fuel prices, according to the UN, have caused trucked water prices to spike - up to 600 percent in some places. Nearly 17 million people in Yemen depend on public water networks - some of which are shutting down due to a lack of fuel - or commercial water. In late November, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported that nine cities lacked the fuel needed to run water treatment plants. Clean water is needed to avoid water-borne diseases, like cholera.

The lack of fuel also increases food scarcity. Civilians have had to spend their limited money on water, giving them less income to purchase food and "further increasing the risk of widespread food insecurity and ultimately famine," according to the UN. Fuel is needed to transport "what little food remains in Yemen, or food will be stuck in warehouses while innocent people starve nearby," said Oxfam.
Closing Sea Ports in Houthi-Controlled Territory
Between November 6 and November 26, the Saudi-led coalition refused to allow any ships to travel to Houthi-controlled ports. On November 6, the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism for Yemen (UNVIM) sent an email, viewed by Human Rights Watch, to vessels asking them to immediately leave the Red Sea ports of Hodeida and Saleef. Hodeida is a key port that receives food, fuel, and other goods, while Saleef is primarily for food imports. Documents shared by port officials said that vessels forced to leave were carrying wheat, fuel, and other cargo. The email said UNVIM was suspending clearance operations "until further notice."

A few days after the complete blockade was announced, the coalition allowed vessels to travel to ports under Yemeni government control, including Aden and Mukalla. On November 26, the coalition allowed a ship carrying food to sail to a Houthi -controlled port for the first time in three weeks. During the following week, the coalition allowed several more ships carrying food to enter Hodeida and Saleef. However, four aid officials said in early December that the coalition was still severely restricting the flow of essential goods into both ports, including food, fuel, and medicine.

Since November, the coalition has refused to allow nearly all commercial ships to travel to ports under Houthi control. The coalition had not allowed any commercial fuel tankers to proceed to Houthi-controlled ports or any commercial vessels to proceed to a port primarily for bulk food imports as of December 5, according to an UNVIM spokesperson. The coalition had "refused to grant four fuel tankers access... two of these tankers have now left for other ports of Yemen due to the costs [of] the delay," the spokesperson said.

In June, the coalition shut down the fuel port of Ras Isa, significantly curtailing fuel deliveries to the country. UNVIM has not cleared a vessel to enter Ras Isa since May. Deliveries were diverted to Hodeida until November. Ras Isa was designed for diesel imports and has a greater capacity than Hodeida, which was incapable of making up the lost capacity even before being closed to imports in November.

Closing all three ports to all shipments for three weeks and continuing to severely curtail the shipment of commercial goods to the ports deprives the civilian population of essential goods. Yemen's population depends on commercial imports of food, fuel, and medicine for survival.

Before November 6, about 75,000 metric tons of the 350,000 metric tons of food imports Yemen requires - or about 20 percent - were humanitarian supplies, leaving 80 percent to come through commercial imports, according to the UN. The UN estimates Yemen's fuel needs at 544,000 metric tons per month - almost all commercial imports reached Yemen via one of its six ports, making the fuel supply particularly vulnerable to naval or commercial disruptions.

The coalition has repeatedly contended that ships can be diverted to ports under the control of the Yemeni government, which it backs, but these two ports are not sufficient to meet the civilian population's needs.

Aden port, the most used after Hodeida and Saleef, does not have the capacity to receive the hundreds of thousands of metric tons of food, fuel, medicine, and other imported goods Yemen depends on for survival. Aden currently has the capacity to take in about 50,000 metric tons of fuel and 80,000 metric tons of food a month, according to the UN - well under the country's needs.

Allowing ports in Houthi-controlled territory to continue functioning is crucial to addressing the humanitarian crisis, Human Rights Watch said. Eighty percent of all imports - humanitarian and commercial - came through Hodeida and Saleef ports before November 6. Combined, the two ports had the capacity to take in about 150,000 metric tons of fuel, 295,000 metric tons of food, and 90,000 metric tons of non-food items each month.

When asked in early 2017 why the coalition had refused to allow imports of materials to repair or replace damaged infrastructure at Hodeida, including four US-donated cranes, then-spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asseri said the coalition sent back those cranes "because we don't want to continue to enhance the capabilities of the Houthis to generate money and to smuggle weapons."

The UN has concluded: "Even at reduced capacity there is no viable substitute for [Hodeida] port." If commercial traffic continues to be blocked, "there continues to be a grave risk of further death, disease and starvation."
Coalition Restrictions on Essential Goods to Houthi Ports
The November restrictions are only the latest move by the coalition to unlawfully impede access for goods essential to the civilian population's survival to reach Houthi-controlled territory, Human Rights Watch said.

In 2015, Human Rights Watch documented that the coalition had withheld permission to fuel tankers to travel to Yemen. In 2016, in recognition of the need to ensure that commercial imports could enter Yemen, the UN established the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism to inspect and issue clearances for all commercial shipping vessels traveling to ports under Houthi control.

The coalition has repeatedly undermined the work of UNVIM. Since 2016, after ships were cleared by UNVIM, they would proceed to a demarcated "coalition holding area" in the Red Sea and wait for the coalition to inspect or give them permission to go to port. Over a four-month period in 2017, Human Rights Watch documented seven cases in which the coalition arbitrarily diverted or delayed fuel tankers headed for ports under Houthi control after the UN cleared and granted permission to each ship to proceed. The coalition has also repeatedly diverted and delayed commercial ships carrying humanitarian cargo.

A doctor in Hodeida told Human Rights Watch the hospital had been given expired or near-expired medication: "When we started to ask why, we've been told that the goods are taking too long at sea for inspection and the procedures for permission." He said some medicines had "vanished from the market." While a few goods came up from Aden, another doctor in Sanaa said, it was with extreme difficulty, in very small amounts and with increased prices, in a situation where we "don't have the ability to buy even at regular prices."

A Sanaa-based businessman said that friends could not obtain medicine for chronic illnesses, including kidney failure:

Medicine is a disaster, people are dying left and right. You'll find medicine, but most of it is smuggled. Medicines need storage specifications. When these guys try and smuggle it through land, use bad warehousing, the medicine is either useless or it kills you.

Humanitarian agencies have repeatedly raised concerns about the coalition diverting all imports through government-controlled Aden. Transporting goods north from Aden requires crossing front lines and increases the risk of diversion and travel time by up to three weeks while raising costs by up to US$30 to US$70 per ton, making goods much more expensive for average Yemenis, according to the UN. In addition, armed forces affiliated with the Yemeni government and the United Arab Emirates, a coalition member, compete for control of the city, including its seaport and airport.

A source in Sanaa collected food prices from a grocery store in the city considered to have relatively low prices before the November 6 announcement and about two weeks after the full blockade was imposed. Most staple food prices - including cooking oil, flour, and rice - spiked by about 25 percent. A can of beans nearly doubled in price. A businessman in Sanaa said that his family has seen food brands disappear over past months. UN documents tracking prices, which Human Rights Watch examined, also noted severe price hikes across goods and governorates after the coalition's November closures.

Even before the conflict, nearly 40 percent of Yemen's population lived on less than US$2 a day. The collapse of the Yemeni riyal and the failure to pay civil servants' salaries, including in some governorates under government control, exacerbates the impact of any price increase on average Yemenis' ability to purchase food, fuel, and medicine.
Coalition Restrictions on Humanitarian Access
The Saudi-led coalition has increasingly restricted humanitarian access to Sanaa, Yemen's largest city, which is under Houthi control.

The coalition suspended all commercial flights to Sanaa in August 2016. Twelve aid agencies called on the coalition to reopen the country's main airport, noting that commercial flights "often bring in vital supplies and allow the free movement of civilians." Mwatana, a leading Yemeni human rights organization, documented cases of people with chronic illnesses unable to travel abroad for treatment, including one woman needing heart surgery who died.

In May, the coalition tried to restrict passage on UN flights to Sanaa to UN passport holders. But non-UN passport holders include crucial staff of aid organizations, human rights groups including Human Rights Watch, and journalists. The UN was able to negotiate for staff of humanitarian organizations to continue taking the flights, but not others.

The coalition has frequently interfered with aid groups' ability to work in Houthi-controlled territory. In August, the coalition informed the UN that international staff needed two visas - one from the Houthis and one from the Yemeni government - to travel on UN flights. The coalition had previously imposed a similar requirement on journalists, before blocking them from the flights. The Yemeni government then required all humanitarian organizations to conclude new agreements with ministries in Aden, even if they had an existing agreement with the Yemeni government. In October, the coalition again informed the UN that only UN passport holders could take UN flights. When the UN refused to ask aid groups to cease using the flights, the coalition responded by grounding flights for two days, humanitarian workers in Sanaa told Human Rights Watch.

As part of the November 6 closures, the coalition refused to allow humanitarian flights - carrying personnel or cargo - to land in Sanaa. On November 22, after eight days of negotiation, one flight was permitted to carry out a lifesaving medical evacuation of a critically ill foreign aid worker. Humanitarian flights to Sanaa resumed on November 25.

The coalition has repeatedly called for humanitarian agencies to move their operations to government-controlled Aden. In its November 6 announcement, the coalition called upon "civilian and humanitarian crews" to avoid "areas and ports exploited by [the Houthis] to smuggle weapons." The announcement also said that humanitarian workers should avoid "areas populated by" the Houthis.
The Coalition Blockade and International Humanitarian Law
International humanitarian law, or the laws of war, prohibits deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians and attacks that cause disproportionate harm to civilians compared to the expected military benefit. Blockades are permitted during armed conflict that do not cause disproportionate civilian harm. However, parties to the conflict must allow and facilitate the rapid passage of humanitarian aid for civilians in need and not arbitrarily interfere with it. Parties must also ensure the freedom of movement of humanitarian workers, which can only be restricted temporarily for reasons of imperative military necessity.

Warring parties are also prohibited from carrying out attacks on objects that are indispensable to the civilian population. These can include food stores, drinking water installations, and port facilities.

The laws of war prohibit using starvation as a method of warfare, and require parties to a conflict not to " provoke [starvation] deliberately" or deliberately cause "the population to suffer hunger, particularly by depriving it of its sources of food or of supplies."

Since the start of the conflict, the Saudi-led coalition has unnecessarily hindered the delivery of humanitarian aid and the free movement of aid workers. Opposing Houthi and Saleh forces were also responsible for blocking and confiscating aid, denying access to populations in need, and restricting the movement of ill civilians and aid workers, with an acute impact on Yemen's third largest city, Taizz.

During the three weeks in November that humanitarian flights to Sanaa were refused, the UN was forced to cancel more than 30 flights, stranding 220 humanitarian staff from nearly 50 agencies outside Yemen and 310 in Yemen. One humanitarian official said that 80 percent of their operations were in areas affected by the Sanaa airport closure. Another said their organization had used the airport to import vaccines and other essential medical items that require cold chain storage.

The coalition has damaged or destroyed objects that were indispensable to the survival of the civilian population in Houthi-controlled areas. In August 2015, coalition airstrikes struck Hodeida port, damaging essential port infrastructure. The coalition has refused to allow the port to replace destroyed infrastructure or import spare parts for repairs, a port official said. In January 2016, coalition airstrikes damaged Ras Isa port's Floating Storage and Offloading terminal, closing part of the facility, Reuters reported.

The full blockade announced on November 6 immediately and predictably exacerbated existing food shortages in Yemen. For instance, a doctor in Hodeida said that prices of fuel, food, and medicine went up "wildly." His hospital saw more severe acute malnutrition cases, which is "not a good indication...It means people reach a critical condition very quickly.". "Most people do not have food, not even water... Hospitals are about to close. Why all this, why? People were already at the bottom, and this last decision has ended everyone."

The coalition sought to justify the full blockade on grounds that it needed to tighten access to prevent foreign-made arms, particularly from Iran, from reaching Houthi forces. Security Council Resolution 2216 permits the coalition to inspect cargo bound for Yemen if there are "reasonable grounds" to suspect that the cargo contains weapons and other prohibited items - but not to block all cargo.

The November blockade was unlawfully disproportionate in that the expected harm to the civilian population exceeded any apparent military benefit. Taken together with the limits on humanitarian aid and the destruction of objects indispensable to the civilian population, the action suggests the coalition may have used starvation of civilians as a weapon of war. The partial lifting of the blockade could have lessened but has not ended the risk of widespread starvation and other civilian harm.

Individuals who willfully commit serious violations of international humanitarian law may be prosecuted for war crimes. This would include deliberately using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival and by impeding humanitarian aid. Military commanders and civilian leaders may be prosecuted for war crimes as a matter of command responsibility if they knew or should have known about the commission of such crimes and took insufficient measures to prevent them or punish those responsible.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yemen: Coalition Blockade Imperils Civilians

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Saudi-led coalition's broad restrictions on aid and essential goods to Yemen's civilian population are worsening the country's humanitarian catastrophe. The coalition has imposed a naval and air blockade on Yemen since the current conflict began in March 2015 that has severely restricted the flow of food, fuel, and medicine to civilians.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The warring sides in Yemen are swapping hundreds of prisoners - a move which has built hopes for a permanent ceasefire between the Saudi-backed government forces and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

The eight year-long civil war has led to the deaths of thousands of Yemenis, and created a major humanitarian crisis.

How did the war start?

In 2011, a popular uprising in Yemen forced its long-standing authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to hand over power to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

However, the new president was overwhelmed with Yemen's economic problems, and security problems such as attacks by jihadists. Furthermore, most of Yemen's armed forces felt more loyalty to the ousted president than they did to Mr Hadi.

The Houthis took advantage of his weakness.

Formally known as the Ansar Allah (Partisans of God), they champion Yemen's Zaidi Shia Muslim minority.

In early 2014, they seized control of Saada province, in the north of the country and then captured the nation's capital, Sanaa, forcing President Hadi to flee abroad in March 2015.

Yemen's neighbour Saudi Arabia was alarmed by the prospect of the Houthis taking control of Yemen, fearing it would become a satellite of Saudi Arabia's rival, Iran.

In March 2015, it and other Arab states began an air campaign aimed at ousting the Houthis and restoring Mr Hadi's government.

The coalition received logistical and intelligence support from the US, UK and France.

What's happened since then?

In August 2015, coalition ground troops landed in the port city of Aden and drove the Houthis out of the south of Yemen. However, they could not dislodge them from Sanaa or the north of the country.

Yemen's official government is now in Aden, while President Hadi himself is based in Saudi Arabia.

The Houthis allied with the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to form a "political council" to govern the area under their control. However, in December 2017, Saleh broke with the Houthis and called for his followers to fight them. Saleh was killed and the Houthis defeated his forces.

In 2018, the Saleh loyalists joined the Saudi-led coalition. Together, they launched a major offensive against the Houthis to recapture the Red Sea city of Hudaydah. The port there is the principal lifeline for millions of Yemenis at risk of famine.

After six months of fierce fighting, the two sides agreed a truce in the city.

In 2021, the Houthis launched an attack on Marib, the government's last stronghold in the north and the centre of an oil-rich province.

Fighting escalated in March this year across the province, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.

The Houthis have attacked targets in Saudi Arabia and the UAE with ballistic missiles and drones, targeting sites including oil installations but also injuring civilians.

Saudi and US officials have accused Iran of smuggling weapons such as drones to the Houthis, in violation of a UN arms embargo. Iran has denied the allegation.

The Saudi-led coalition has carried out thousands of air strikes which have killed tens of thousands of people, according to the UN.

These include "double tap" attacks, in which the first strike hits a group of enemy troops and the second one hits the people who go to their rescue.

The UN says both sides in the civil war may have committed war crimes. Both sides deny the allegation.

In April 2022, the UN brokered a ceasefire between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels, though the sides failed to renew it six months later.

However they recently agreed to swap approximately 900 prisoners as a confidence measure which it is hoped could lead to a permanent ceasefire.

What's been the human cost?

The UN says Yemen is experiencing the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

It says 4.5 million people, one in seven of the population, have been displaced. while 24.1 million people, 80% of the population, are in need of humanitarian aid and protection.

The UN says that tens of thousands of people in Yemen are currently living in famine-like conditions, while some six million people are on the verge of famine.

The UN estimated that by the start of 2022, the conflict in Yemen had caused over 377,000 deaths, with 60% the result of hunger, lack of healthcare and unsafe water.

It says more than 11,000 children are known to have been killed or wounded as a direct result of the fighting.

Yemen has also suffered from one of the largest cholera outbreaks ever recorded, with 2.5 million suspected cases and about 4,000 related deaths since 2016.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yemen: Why is the war there getting more violent?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The warring sides in Yemen are swapping hundreds of prisoners - a move which has built hopes for a permanent ceasefire between the Saudi-backed government forces and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The eight year-long civil war has led to the deaths of thousands of Yemenis, and created a major humanitarian crisis.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Three-year-old Abdo Saleh lay on a cot, unable to walk or speak, his tiny body broken by hunger. His face was skeletal, his arms and legs thin as twigs. He weighed 10 pounds.

The crisis in Yemen

In pivotal Yemeni city, scarred by war and cholera, a fragile ceasefire is tested

Saudi-led forces waging war have backed local militiamen. Now the gunmen are turning on each other.

A man-made war paid for by women and children

FROM PRI: How to help

A few miles away, markets were stocked with all kinds of food. But prices have risen so sharply that his parents cannot afford the milk, fruits and vegetables that are in abundance. "Sometimes, we go two days without food," said his father, Saleh Abdo Ahmed, sadly squeezing his son's raisin-size toes.

After nearly four years of conflict, more than 20 million Yemenis - roughly two-thirds of the population - don't have enough to eat. In most cases, it's not because food is completely unavailable but because it's unaffordable, priced out of reach by import restrictions, soaring transport costs due to fuel scarcity, a collapsing currency and other man-made supply disruptions.

Economic measures, largely imposed by a Saudi-led military coalition backed by the United States, have helped produce what the United Nations considers the world's most severe humanitarian catastrophe.

And over the past year, the hunger crisis has worsened dramatically, with a 60 percent increase in the number of districts now considered to face emergency conditions, according to an analysis released this month by a consortium of aid agencies. More than half now fall in this category.

Yet even as the world has begun to take note, many Yemenis remain out of reach of assistance. The hardest-hit areas are often the most remote, and the relentless violence coupled with threats posed by competing armed groups have made it daunting for aid agencies to deliver relief. The Yemeni government itself is so broken that it can barely help.

The crisis, at its root, reflects what critics say is the reckless way that Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is conducting war in Yemen against Iran-aligned rebels. The specter of an emerging famine is among the reasons the U.S. Senate this month voted to end U.S. support for the coalition, which is also blamed for killing thousands of civilians in airstrikes.

"Today, many Yemenis say they are facing two wars," said Abeer Etefa, a senior regional spokeswoman for the World Food Program. "The first war is the one that comes from the skies. Sometimes it impacts their lives, other times it doesn't. The second war is the inflation war. That impacts their lives every day."

Those who are relatively fortunate are noticed by aid workers, often by chance, and brought to overcrowded clinics. The less fortunate, who medical workers say form the majority, waste away as their parents helplessly watch. Many families are unable to afford medical care or even transportation to clinics.

Often, parents are forced to decide between saving their sick children and feeding their healthy ones.

Abdo would be dead by now if it weren't for a chance visit by a medical worker and the willingness of a nurse at the district's only pediatric clinic to travel to this village and retrieve the boy. By then, Abdo's father no longer had the means to save his boy. "I was waiting for God's fate," said Ahmed.

A currency crash

In their new analysis, the aid agencies found that more than 20 million Yemenis are "food insecure," or unable to adequately feed themselves. Of those, 65,000 are in a "catastrophic" state. That figure is expected to nearly quadruple in upcoming months, and those people "will die if we can't reach them with assistance," said Lise Grande, the U.N.'s top humanitarian official in Yemen.

Already, as many as 85,000 children under 5 may have died of hunger since the start of the war, the aid agency Save the Children said last month. In the worst-hit areas, concentrated in rebel-held territory in northern Yemen where coalition restrictions are most stringent, thousands more children are dying of malnutrition-related illnesses.

A raft of economic policies has conspired to raise food prices by an average of 137 percent since the start of the conflict, according to the World Food Program, bringing Yemen to the brink of famine.

In an effort to strangle the rebels, known as Houthis, the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government has imposed import restrictions, including on food, medicine and fuel. The resulting spike in fuel prices has led to higher transport costs, which in turn has also driven up food prices.

The coalition, in the meantime, tightly controls the movement of goods and people by air, sea and land into northern Yemen, where 80 percent of the population lives. Those controls have further disrupted supplies and boosted the prices of food, fuel and other goods even more.

The shooting from the war also has played a devastating part. One-third of the 18,000 airstrikes carried out by the coalition have targeted nonmilitary sites, including factories, farms, markets, power plants and food warehouses, according to the Yemen Data Project. Those attacks have shattered domestic food production and distribution and have erased livelihoods, leaving Yemenis with less to spend.

Perhaps most disastrous for a country that must depend overwhelmingly on imported food, the purchasing power of the Yemeni currency has cratered. The government and its Saudi patrons have mismanaged the central bank, for instance by liberally printing money, while foreign currency reserves have dried up as fighting choked off energy exports, gutting the rial.

The Saudi-led coalition did not respond to a request for comment. But it has previously called the hunger crisis exaggerated and blamed the rebels.

To a lesser extent, the rebels are in fact also at fault for rising prices. They impose heavy checkpoint "fees" on businesses importing food and fuel, aid workers say.

The head of the rebels' Supreme Revolutionary Committee, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, said they have not received complaints about such fees.

'He gave up'

The village of Al Jarb is nestled in an isolated, mountainous area of northern Yemen. Its residents are mostly illiterate and live in mud-brick homes. They have always been poor, but now their lives have sunk to unseen levels.

Some villagers had once worked in neighboring Saudi Arabia and sent money home. But with borders closed and the territory crisscrossed with front lines, the jobs and the money evaporated. Now, most of the villagers survive by picking khat, the leafy stimulant chewed by most Yemenis.

Ahmed still earns the same salary picking khat, roughly $2 a day, that he made before the war. But prices of sugar and other staple foods have shot up.

"I can buy less food now," said Ahmed, the sole provider for his wife and four children.

Today, 40 percent of the roughly 90,000 people in Aslam District, which includes Al Jarb, are facing "famine-like" conditions - one step below famine, according to the aid groups' analysis.

In mid-November, a medical worker named Hazim Muhsin came to the village to conduct a nutritional survey. When he reached Abdo's compound, he was shocked by the boy's emaciated state.

By then, Abdo's parents had taken him to several hospitals and clinics, selling their wedding jewelry and other possessions to pay for transportation and medical care. Abdo would improve at first but always slip backward into cycles of vomiting and diarrhea. His parents also took him to a traditional healer who performed a folk ritual known as "maysam" - or branding - to eject the "devil" from him. Abdo continued to deteriorate.

After seeing Abdo's condition, Muhsin implored his father to send him to a government clinic.

"But the father had reached a stage that he gave up," recalled Muhsin. "He saw the boy wasn't improving."

'He will die in a week'

After two weeks of trying to persuade Ahmed, Muhsin called Makiya Ahmed Mehdi, the head nurse at the pediatric clinic. He sent photos and videos of Abdo through WhatsApp.

The rail-thin nurse had every reason not to follow up. Her clinic was overcrowded. The Yemeni government, which has withheld the salaries of more than 1 million government employees in rebel areas, hadn't paid her in five months. Still, using money donated by a charity, Mehdi hired a pickup truck for $10 and went to Al Jarb, a 40-minute drive away.

"If you don't bring him to the clinic, he will die in a week," Mehdi told Ahmed after examining his son's symptoms - the loose skin, the scabs on his skull, the blank stares. A raspy cough hinted at a chest infection or even pneumonia.

"I can't take him there," replied his father, who was slim and sunburned. "I don't have money for transport."

Ahmed had been working less and less. Landowners had been cutting back on laborers in the khat fields as the increasing price of fuel, used to power water pumps, raised production costs. At the same time, a flood of unemployed laborers were willing to work for much less money than Ahmed.

"Every day, my family waits for me to bring food," Ahmed said. "If I don't make money, they go hungry."

Mehdi offered to reimburse him the $10 fare to the clinic. But Ahmed said drivers require advance payments. Even if he had money, he could not afford to take off from work.

His wife couldn't take Abdo to the clinic either. She had left Ahmed a day earlier after they argued about whether to buy food - or save their son.

Abdo suddenly gasped for air.

Mehdi shook her head. She wondered how she was going to rescue him.

The weakest eat last

After Mehdi examined Abdo and listened to his father's refusal, several villagers arrived and led her to another compound. In front of a one-room, mud-brick house was 12-year-old Maysa Mohammed Ali.

She couldn't walk or speak and suffered seizures. Her ribs pressed against her skin, her face gaunt, her arms and legs a jumble of bones. She was lying on a piece of cardboard atop a cot.

"We have nothing to feed her now," said her mother, Shuwaya Mohammed.

Maysa has 12 other siblings, and the whole family lives on the $1 to $2 a day their father earns from picking khat. The healthy ones are fed first, not least because they can voice their complaints, said her mother. Disabled Maysa, who can't utter a word, is always the last to eat.

"Only if there is extra food, we give it to her," said her mother without any hint of emotion. "Sometimes she goes two or three days without eating."

A few minutes later, another villager arrived and told Mehdi of yet another case. But the sky was already darkening, and Mehdi didn't have time to see the boy.

"Three cases in one village!" said Mehdi. "These are only the ones we know. There are 20 other villages in this area we don't know about."

In her clinic, mothers were already doubling up in beds with each other, sleeping with their children. Maysa would have to be left behind because she was not on the verge of death.

But Abdo was.

So Mehdi told Abdo's father and grandmother to pick up the boy and come with her to the clinic.

As the truck started to roll, an old woman reached out and kissed Mehdi's hand.

At the clinic, Abdo was weighed in a bucket attached to a scale. Mehdi's staff measured his height and the circumference of his brittle limbs. They wrapped him in a diaper - the first one he'd worn in a year, which was the last time his parents could afford one.

In another room were seven mothers with bony, underweight babies. The mothers, too, were thin and suffering from malnutrition.

The following day, Abdo's mother arrived at the clinic.

Abdo smiled widely when he saw her. For a moment, however brief, his joy brought out the boy he should have been.

About this story

Design and development by Andrew Braford. Photo editing by Olivier Laurent. Video editing by Joyce Lee.
×
More stories

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Three-year-old Abdo Saleh lay on a cot, unable to walk or speak, his tiny body broken by hunger. His face was skeletal, his arms and legs thin as twigs. He weighed 10 pounds. The crisis in Yemen In pivotal Yemeni city, scarred by war and cholera, a fragile ceasefire is tested Saudi-led forces waging war have backed local militiamen.

# data[].attributes.headline
Political Map of Yemen and some basic information 

# data[].attributes.subject
Political Map of Yemen and some basic information 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nations Online Project - About Yemen, the region, the culture, the people. Images, maps, links, and background information

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Yemen is a sovereign nation with an area of 527,970 sq. km. Mainland Yemen lies in the Arabian Peninsula of Asia. The country has an extensive coastline of around 2,000 km and over 200 islands. As observed on the physical map of Yemen above, the Socotra Islands are also a part of the country.

Yemen has some of the most fertile lands in the entire Middle East, and yet, for the most part, they're not developed to their full potential. Along its Red Sea coast, there's a flat sandy plain that extends the length of the country. The Gulf of Aden coastline is covered by a narrow, rocky, and relatively flat plain, fronted by hills that rise into the rugged mountains, central and west.

To the north of those central mountains, the high desert slopes down through fertile plains into the interior of southern Saudi Arabia, and the endless sands of the Rub' Al Khali Desert - the famous "Empty Quarter."

Marked on the map by a yellow upright triangle, Yemen's highest point is Jabal an Nabi Shu'ayb at 3,760 m.

There are no perennial lakes and rivers, however, in the northern highlands, some river valleys (wadis) and small streams exist (fall and winter) but fade away quickly in the summer heat.

Governorates and Districts of Yemen Map

Yemen (officially the Republic of Yemen) is divided into two main administrative divisions. They are known as Governorates (Arabic: muhafazat, singular - muhafazah) and Districts (Arabic: muderiah). Governorates constitute the highest administrative division in Yemen. There are 22 governorates including the capital city - Amanat al Άsmiah (Sanaa City) and Arkhabil Suqutra (Socotra Archipelago).

In alphabetical order, the 22 governorates are - Άdan (Aden), Άmran, Abyan, Ad Dali´, Al Bayda, Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf, Al Mahrah, Al Mahwit, Amanat al Άsmiah (Sanaa City), Arkhabil Suqutra (Socotra Archipelago), Dhamar, Hadramawt, Hajjah, Ibb, Lahij, Ma´rib, Raymah, Sa´dah, San´a (Sanaa), Shabwah, and Ta´izz.

The 22 governorates are further subdivided into 333 districts and smaller subdivisions including 2,210 sub-districts and 38,284 villages.

Sana´a is the largest city in Yemen and the capital of the country.

Where is Yemen?

Yemen is an arid country situated in the Middle-East region at the south-western corner of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is located in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres of the Earth. Yemen is bordered by two countries. Saudi Arabia bounds it to the north and Oman to the east. Yemen has a coastline on the Red Sea to the west. The Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, and Guardafui Channel bound it to the south. Yemen is strategically located at the entrance of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. The strait links the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea via the Gulf of Aden.

Yemen Bordering Countries: Saudi Arabia, Oman.

Regional Maps: Map of Asia

Outline Map of Yemen

The outline map above represents mainland Yemen. The map may be downloaded, printed, and used for coloring or education purpose.

The outline map represents the mainland area of the country of Yemen in the Middle East region of Asia.

Key Facts

Legal Name

Republic of Yemen

Flag

Capital City

Sanaa

15 21 N, 44 12 E

Total Area

527,968.00 km ²

Land Area

527,968.00 km ²

Water Area

N/A

Population

29,161,922

Major Cities

1. Sana'a' (2,972,988)

2. Adan (Aden) (980,455)

3. Ta'izz (845,154)

4. Al-Hudaydah (668,899)

5. Ibb (648,889)

6. Al-Mukalla (506,356)

7. Dhamar (351,039)

Currency
Yemeni rials (YER)

GDP

$27.59 Billion

GDP Per Capita

$968.16

This page was last updated on February 24, 2021

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Yemen is a sovereign nation with an area of 527,970 sq. km. Mainland Yemen lies in the Arabian Peninsula of Asia. The country has an extensive coastline of around 2,000 km and over 200 islands. As observed on the physical map of Yemen above, the Socotra Islands are also a part of the country.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Stay on top of Yemen latest developments on the ground with Al Jazeera's fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated maps.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The U.S. maintained a diplomatic presence in Aden as early as the 1880s, but this was primarily for consular purposes relating to American citizen services. U.S. diplomatic representation in North Yemen began in 1959 with a consulate based in Ta'iz focused mainly on economic and humanitarian assistance, and in South Yemen in 1967. Military leaders in North Yemen launched a revolutionary movement on September 26, 1962, which attempted to overthrow the monarchy and establish the Yemen Arab Republic. The United States recognized the new republican government on December 19, 1962. The Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) severed relations with the United States on June 7, 1967 in the wake of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Diplomatic relations were reestablished in July 1972 after a visit to Sana'a by U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers. The U.S. Embassy in Aden closed when the People's Republic of Southern Yemen severed diplomatic relations with the United States on October 24, 1969. In 1970, the People's Republic of Southern Yemen changed its name to the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and on April 30, 1990, the United States resumed diplomatic relations with the country. Yemeni unification occurred on May 22, 1990. The Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen unified under the Republic of Yemen in 1990. In 1994, civil war broke out in Yemen over North-South contentions and the country continues to struggle with issues over unification. After reunification Yemen elected Ali Abdullah Saleh, former president of the Yemen Arab Republic, to lead the country.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yemen - United States Department of State

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The U.S. maintained a diplomatic presence in Aden as early as the 1880s, but this was primarily for consular purposes relating to American citizen services. U.S. diplomatic representation in North Yemen began in 1959 with a consulate based in Ta'iz focused mainly on economic and humanitarian assistance, and in South Yemen in 1967.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Yemen was already the Middle East's poorest country prior to the war, but the conflict and resultant blockade tactics have worsened the situation exponentially." "The United States must make clear that these cruel and senseless blockade tactics imperil millions of innocent Yemeni people and are counterproductive to peace." Text of Letter (pdf)
Washington, DC - United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), sent a letter to President Biden regarding the Saudi-led coalition's use of blockade tactics in Yemen that have prevented food, medicine, and other crucial supplies from reaching millions. In the letter, the lawmakers urge President Biden to take immediate and decisive action to leverage all U.S. influence and tools to pressure Saudi Arabia to unconditionally and immediately end its blockade tactics.

"We request that you leverage all influence and tools available, including the potential impact on pending weapons sales, U.S.-Saudi military cooperation, and U.S.-Saudi ties more broadly, to demand that Saudi Arabia immediately and unconditionally stop the use of blockade tactics. The current commercial fuel import standoff must end today and be decoupled from ongoing negotiations," wrote the lawmakers.

For nearly seven years, Yemen has been embroiled in a devastating civil war that has completely destabilized the country. The conflict has consumed the entire nation and spiraled into the world's leading humanitarian crisis. The United Nations (UN) estimates that close to 80 percent of Yemen's 31 million citizens - more than 24 million people - are in need of assistance and protection. More than three million people have been displaced, and experts estimate that over 230,000 people have died during the war, including tens of thousands of civilian casualties and at least 130,000 who have died due to a lack of health services and widespread famine.

Since 2015, as a part of the civil war in Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition has prevented crucial resources from reaching people in need. In 2015, Saudi Arabia began positioning warships in Yemeni waters and shut down access to the nation's air and land access ports. Blockade tactics have been used repeatedly, preventing vital food, medicine, fuel, and essential supplies from reaching sick and starving Yemeni people. The most recent iteration of this back-and-forth between the warring actors has halted the importation of all commercial fuel needed by nearly two-thirds of the population in northern Yemen. It has negatively impacted food transporters and processors, hospitals, schools, and businesses. Nations and experts from across the globe have decried these blockade tactics since they began in 2015.

President Biden's administration has taken several steps to address the conflict in Yemen, including reversing the Trump administration's designation of Houthi rebels as a terrorist organization, announcing an end to U.S. support for Saudi-led "offensive" operations, and resuming critical humanitarian assistance to northern Yemen.

"We applaud the attention that your administration has given to ending the conflict in Yemen, but immediate and decisive action must be taken to end the ongoing blockade of fuel imports which is exacerbating the growing humanitarian crisis," continued the lawmakers.

This letter is endorsed by Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), American Friends Service Committee, Churches for Middle East Peace, Freedom Forward, Demand Progress, Charity and Security Network, Just Foreign Policy, Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation, Massachusetts Peace Action, New Jersey Peace Action, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Peace Action, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) CODEPINK, DC Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Action Corps, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Saudi American Justice Project, Yemeni Alliance Committee, the United Methodist Church - Church of Board and Society, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, Pax Christi USA, Presbyterian Church (USA), National Council of Churches, Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries.

"Until recently, the blockade on Yemen has been neglected by Congress despite its catastrophic impact on civilians' lives in Yemen," said Dr. Shireen Al-Adeimi, assistant professor at Michigan State University. "I'm glad to see that this is now shifting, and that U.S. elected officials are calling on President Biden to end his support for the blockade on Yemen. I also hope to see Congress take back its constitutional power by legislating an end to all U.S. involvement in the war on Yemen."

"It's welcome news that this group of 16 Senators is calling for an immediate end to the Saudi blockade on Yemen, that's helping drive the world's worst humanitarian crisis," said Hassan El-Tayyab, legislative manager for Middle East Policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). "The recent admission by the Department of Defense that U.S. companies are still authorized to maintain Saudi warplanes, means that our government is still enabling offensive Saudi operations in Yemen, including bombings and enforcing an inhumane blockade on Yemen's ports. The administration must use its existing authority to block U.S. civilian contractors from aiding the Saudi war effort, before more Yemenis are plunged into famine."

"The blockade, meant to starve civilians and destroy their livelihoods, is pushing 16.3 million Yemeni into the brink of a man-made famine," said Dr. Aisha Jumaan, President of Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation. "We must lift the blockade immediately and unconditionally to prevent mass starvation and save lives. Conditioning lifting the blockade to protracted negotiations between warring parties is unethical as it holds civilians hostages and risks their lives. Yemen can't wait!"

"While we welcomed the Biden Administration's promised end to U.S. support for Saudi-led 'offensive' operations on Yemen earlier this year, the ongoing blockade constitutes one of the deadliest offensive operations against Yemeni civilians to date," said Cavan Kharrazian, Progressive Foreign Policy Campaigner at Demand Progress. "U.S. logistics and support continue to be used by the Saudi regime to enforce its blockade, and the Biden Administration has yet to use the full weight of its leverage with Saudi Arabia to end its devastating collective punishment of millions of Yemenis. We applaud the Senators' letter, and urge them to use all legislative tools at their disposal to end U.S. complicity in perpetuating the world's worst humanitarian crisis."

"How is it possible that we are still supporting Saudi Arabia even as they continue their blockade of supplies desperately needed to avert mass starvation in Yemen. We need President Biden to get back to his campaign promise to treat Saudi Arabia as the pariah nation that they are instead of looking the other way and sending them new weapons while they starve so many in Yemen," said Paul Shannon, Mass. Peace Action Board and Executive Committee Member.

"Actions speak louder than words. The administration must heed the call of these Senators and act now to end the blockade on Yemen by exercising its vast leverage over the Saudi regime," said Erik Sperling, executive director of Just Foreign Policy. "The blockade causes skyrocketing food and transportation costs, starving families and then preventing them from reaching lifesaving healthcare. Shielding the Saudis from consequences would lead to the unavoidable conclusion that the U.S. is complicit in the blockade. That would be unconscionable and unacceptable."

Senator Warren has been an outspoken critic of U.S. support to the Saudi-led coalition's military operations in Yemen. She has previously questioned military commanders about the United States' ability to track the outcomes of bombing missions carried out by U.S.-armed coalition warplanes and has urged the United States to immediately end its involvement in the Yemen war.

###

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Warren, Colleagues to Biden Admin: Use All Tools to End Saudi Coalition's Blockade of Yemen | U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Yemen was already the Middle East's poorest country prior to the war, but the conflict and resultant blockade tactics have worsened the situation exponentially." "The United States must make clear that these cruel and senseless blockade tactics imperil millions of innocent Yemeni people and are counterproductive to peace."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Yemen's civil war began in 2014 when Houthi insurgents-Shiite rebels with links to Iran and a history of rising up against the Sunni government-took control of Yemen's capital and largest city, Sana'a, demanding lower fuel prices and a new government. Following failed negotiations, the rebels seized the presidential palace in January 2015, leading President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to resign. Beginning in March 2015, a coalition of Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia launched a campaign of economic isolation and air strikes against the Houthi insurgents, with U.S. logistical and intelligence support.

Hadi rescinded his resignation and returned to Aden in September 2015, and fighting has continued since. A UN effort to broker peace talks between allied Houthi rebels and the internationally recognized Yemeni government stalled in the summer of 2016. As of December 2017, Hadi has reportedly been residing in exile in Saudi Arabia.

In July 2016, the Houthis and the government of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, ousted in 2011 after nearly thirty years in power, announced the formation of a "political council" to govern Sana'a and much of northern Yemen. However, in December 2017, Saleh broke with the Houthis and called for his followers to take up arms against them. Saleh was killed and his forces defeated within two days.

The intervention of regional powers in Yemen's conflict, including Iran and Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia, threatens to draw the country into the broader Sunni-Shia divide. Numerous Iranian weapons shipments to Houthi rebels have been intercepted in the Gulf of Aden by a Saudi naval blockade in place since April 2015. In response, Iran has dispatched its own naval convoy, which further risks military escalation between the two countries.

In February 2021, Houthi rebels launched an offensive to seize Marib, the last stronghold of Yemen's internationally recognized government, and in early March, Houthi rebels conducted missile airstrikes in Saudi Arabia, including targeting oil tankers and facilities and international airports. The Saudi-led coalition responded to the increase of attacks with airstrikes targeting Sana'a, Yemen's capital. The offensive was the deadliest clash since 2018, killing hundreds of fighters and complicating peace processes.

Meanwhile, the conflict continues to take a heavy toll on Yemeni civilians, making Yemen the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The UN estimates that 60 percent of the estimated 377,000 deaths in Yemen since 2015 are the result of indirect causes like food insecurity and lack of accessible health services. Nearly 74 percent, or twenty-five million Yemenis, remain in need of assistance. Five million are at risk of famine, and a cholera outbreak has affected over one million people. All sides of the conflict are reported to have violated human rights and international humanitarian law.

An economic crisis continues to compound the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen. In late 2019, the conflict led to the splintering of the economy into two broad economic zones under territories controlled by the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government. In the fall of 2021, the sharp depreciation of Yemen's currency, particularly in government-controlled areas, significantly reduced people's purchasing power and pushed many basic necessities even further out of reach, leading to widespread protests across cities in southern Yemen. Security forces forcefully responded to the protests.

Separate from the ongoing civil war, the United States is suspected of continuing counterterrorism operations in Yemen, relying mainly on airstrikes to target al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and militants associated with the self-proclaimed Islamic State. In 2016, the United States conducted an estimated 35 strikes in Yemen; in 2017, it conducted about 130. In April 2016, the United States deployed a small team of forces to advise and assist Saudi-led troops to retake territory from AQAP. In January 2017, a U.S. Special Operations Forces raid in central Yemen killed one U.S. service member, several suspected AQAP-affiliated fighters, and an unknown number of Yemeni civilians.

The United States is deeply invested in combating terrorism and violent extremism in Yemen, having collaborated with the Yemeni government on counterterrorism since the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. Since 2002, the United States has carried out nearly four hundred strikes in Yemen. While Houthi rebels do not pose a direct threat to the United States, their attacks on Saudi Arabian infrastructure and territory threaten an important U.S. partner.

Breaking from previous U.S. policy, U.S. President Joe Biden announced an end to U.S. support for Saudi-led offensive operations in Yemen in February 2021. The United States continues to send and sell weapons to countries in the region as a response to Houthi-led attacks. While the United States announced an end to supporting offensive operations, it has refrained from pushing Saudi Arabia to end a blockade on the coast of Yemen, which has prevented fuel tankers from entering Hodeidah, the main port and access point for humanitarian aid to flow into the country.

The Saudi-led coalition and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels reached a UN-brokered cease-fire in April 2022; the cease-fire was renewed twice. Despite the official expiration of the cease-fire after six months, both sides have refrained from major escalatory actions.

Recent talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia in April 2023, mediated by China, have raised hopes of a political settlement to end the conflict in Yemen. The talks lead to a breakthrough agreement to re-establish diplomatic relations and re-open both sides' embassies after years of tension and hostility. Iran's UN mission said that the agreement could accelerate efforts to renew the lapsed cease-fire.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Yemen's civil war began in 2014 when Houthi insurgents-Shiite rebels with links to Iran and a history of rising up against the Sunni government-took control of Yemen's capital and largest city, Sana'a, demanding lower fuel prices and a new government.

# data[].attributes.headline
"Famine has arrived in pockets of Yemen."

# data[].attributes.subject
"Famine has arrived in pockets of Yemen."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
yemen: famine has arrived and saudi ships blocking fuel aren't helping - cnn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Famine has arrived in pockets of Yemen. Saudi ships blocking fuel aren't helping

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When 10-month-old Hassan Ali arrived at the hospital, doctors were hopeful they could save him. So many children in northern Yemen, after all, don't even get this far, starved not only of food but also the fuel needed just to reach medical help.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
With an area of 2,150,000 sq. km, Saudi Arabia is the largest sovereign country of Arabia. It occupies nearly 80% of the area of the Arabian Peninsula and has extensive coastlines on the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.

Saudi Arabia is, for the most part, an uninhabited desert land. As observed on the physical map above, two main desert regions dominate the landscape of the country. These are the Rub' Al Khali Desert, the larges mass of sand in the world, and the An-Nafud Desert - where sand dunes often exceed 100 ft. in height.

The land (desert) rises into hills and mountains in the west and southwest, along the edges of the Red Sea. Mountain ranges include the Hejaz in the northwest, and the Azir in the southwest.

Saudi Arabia's highest point is Jabal Sawda' which peaks at 10,279 ft. (3,133 m). It has been marked on the map by a yellow upright triangle.

There are no perennial lakes or rivers but numerous wadis. The lowest point in the country is at 0 m or 0 ft in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.

Emirates of Saudi Arabia Map

Saudi Arabia (officially, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) is divided into 13 administrative provinces or emirates. In alphabetical order, these provinces are: Al Baha, Al Jawf, Al Madinah, Aseer, Eastern province, Ha'il province, Jazan, Makkah, Najran, Northern Border province, Qassim, Riyadh and Tabuk. These provinces are divided into 118 governorates which are further subdivided into sub-governorates.

Riyadh is the capital and largest city and is located in the center of an-Nafud desert, on the eastern region of the Najid Plateau. With a population of 7.6 million, it is the most populous city in Saudi Arabia.

Where is Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia is a sovereign Western Asian Nation, occupying the central region of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. It is located in the Northern and Eastern hemispheres of the Earth. Saudi Arabia is bordered by 8 nations: Jordan in the Northwest, Iraq in the North and Northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and United Arab Emirates in the east, Oman in the Southeast and Yemen in the South. The Persian Gulf is in the northeast and Red Sea to the West of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is often referred to as "The Land of the Two Holy Mosques" for Mecca and Medina - the two holy pilgrimages of the religion of Islam.

Saudi Arabia Bordering Countries: Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman.

Regional Maps: Map of Asia

Outline Map of Saudi Arabia

Key Facts

Legal Name

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Flag

Capital City

Riyadh

24 39 N, 46 42 E

Total Area

2,149,690.00 km ²

Land Area

2,149,690.00 km ²

Water Area

N/A

Population

34,268,528

Major Cities

1. Ar-Riyadh (Riyadh) (7,231,447)

2. Jiddah (4,610,176)

3. Makkah (Mecca) (2,042,106)

4. Al-Madinah (Medina) (1,488,782)

5. Ad-Dammam (1,252,523)

6. Hufuf-Mubarraz (836,727)

7. Taif (688,693)

8. Buraydah (668,775)

9. Tabuk (657,277)

10. Jubayl (605,743)

Currency
Saudi riyals (SAR)

GDP

$792.97 Billion

GDP Per Capita

$23,139.80

This page was last updated on February 24, 2021

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With an area of 2,150,000 sq. km, Saudi Arabia is the largest sovereign country of Arabia. It occupies nearly 80% of the area of the Arabian Peninsula and has extensive coastlines on the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia is, for the most part, an uninhabited desert land.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
UN News produces daily news content in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Kiswahili, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, and weekly programmes in Hindi, Urdu and Bangla. Our multimedia service, through this new integrated single platform, updates throughout the day, in text, audio and video - also making use of quality images and other media from across the UN system.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yemen | U.S. Agency for International Development

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
While humanitarian assistance is crucial, it will not rebuild key social and economic institutions or foster Yemen's future resilience. USAID therefore relaunched development assistance support to Yemen in 2017 to complement our humanitarian assistance efforts. Development assistance activities aim to strengthen the ability of Yemeni institutions to meet citizens needs and build a stronger foundation for durable peace and prosperity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Introduction

Yemen, a small country on the Arabian Peninsula, has become the site of grievous civilian suffering amid an intractable civil war. Many analysts say the fighting, now seven years old, has turned into a proxy war: Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who overthrew the Yemeni government, are pitted against a multinational coalition led by Saudi Arabia. The involvement of other combatants, including militant Islamist groups and separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has complicated the picture.

The conflict has displaced more than four million people and given rise to cholera outbreaks, medicine shortages, and threats of famine. The warring parties observed a monthslong cease-fire in 2022, raising hopes for a political solution to the conflict, but that October, they failed to extend the truce.

What are Yemen's divisions?

Yemen has long struggled with religious and cultural differences between its north and south and the legacy of European colonialism. The modern Yemeni state was formed in 1990 with the unification of the U.S.- and Saudi-backed Yemeni Arab Republic, in the north, and the Soviet-backed People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, in the south. Ali Abdullah Saleh, a military officer who had ruled North Yemen since 1978, assumed leadership of the new country.

However, just four years after unification, southern separatists seceded for several months and reemerged in 2007 as the Southern Movement, which has continued to press for greater autonomy within Yemen. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), an Islamist militant group, and the related Ansar al-Sharia insurgent group have captured territory in the south and east. The Houthi movement, whose base is among the Zaydi Shiites of northern Yemen, rose up against Saleh's government six times between 2004 and 2010.

The United States lent its support to Saleh beginning in the early 2000s, when counterterrorism cooperation against al-Qaeda and affiliate groups became Washington's overriding regional concern. In 2000, al-Qaeda in Yemen, a group that would later become AQAP, conducted a suicide attack on a U.S. Navy warship, the USS Cole, in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen U.S. service members were killed in the bombing. Since then, the United States has provided Yemen more than $850 million in military aid, according to the online database Security Assistance Monitor.

Rights groups persistently charged [PDF] that Saleh ran a corrupt and autocratic government. As the popular protests of the 2011 Arab Spring spread to Yemen, the president's political and military rivals jockeyed to oust him. While Yemeni security forces focused on putting down protests in urban areas, AQAP made gains in outlying regions.

Under escalating domestic and international pressure [PDF], Saleh stepped aside in 2012 after receiving assurances of immunity from prosecution. His vice president, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, assumed office as interim president in a transition brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional organization based in Saudi Arabia, and backed by the United States. As part of the GCC's timetable for a transition, the UN-sponsored National Dialogue Conference (NDC) convened 565 delegates in 2013 to formulate a new constitution agreeable to Yemen's many factions. But the NDC ended with delegates unable to resolve disputes over the distribution of power.

What caused the current crisis?

Several factors widened these political divisions and led to full-scale military conflict.

Fuel price hikes. Under pressure from the International Monetary Fund, which had extended to Yemen a $550 million loan premised on promises of economic reforms, Hadi's government lifted fuel subsidies in 2014. The Houthi movement, which had attracted support beyond its base with its criticisms of the UN transition, organized mass protests demanding lower fuel prices and a new government. Hadi's supporters and the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated party al-Islah held counterrallies.

Houthi takeover. The Houthis captured much of Sanaa by late 2014. Reneging on a UN peace deal, they consolidated control of the capital and continued their southward advance. Hadi's government resigned under pressure in January 2015 and Hadi later fled to Saudi Arabia.

Military division. Military units loyal to Saleh aligned themselves with the Houthis, contributing to their battlefield success. Other militias mobilized against the Houthi-Saleh forces, aligning with those in the military who had remained loyal to the Hadi government. Southern separatists ramped up their calls for secession.

Saudi intervention. In 2015, with Hadi in exile, Riyadh launched a military campaign-primarily fought from the air-to roll back the Houthis and restore the Hadi administration to Sanaa.

Who are the parties involved?

The Houthi movement, named for a religious leader from the Houthi clan and officially known as Ansar Allah, emerged in the late 1980s as a vehicle for religious and cultural revivalism among Zaydi Shiites in northern Yemen. The Zaydis are a minority in the Sunni Muslim-majority country but predominant in the northern highlands along the Saudi border.

The Houthis became politically active after 2003, opposing Saleh for backing the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq but later allying with him after his resignation as president. This alliance was a tactical one: Saleh's loyalists opposed Hadi's UN-backed government and, feeling marginalized in the transition process, sought to regain a leading role in Yemen. Saleh won the allegiance of some members of Yemen's security forces, tribal networks, and political establishment. But in 2017, after Saleh shifted his support to the Saudi-led coalition, he was killed by Houthi forces.

Iran is the Houthis' primary international backer and has reportedly provided them with military support, including weapons. Hadi's government also accused Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese ally, of aiding the Houthis. Saudi Arabia's perception that the Houthis are an Iranian proxy rather than an indigenous movement has driven Riyadh's military intervention. But many regional specialists say that Tehran's influence is likely limited, especially given that Iranians and Houthis adhere to different schools of Shiite Islam. Experts also say Iran's sway could shrink as Saudi-Iranian relations warm following a China-mediated rapprochement in early 2023. Some analysts expect Iranian weapons transfers to the Houthis to decline.

At Hadi's behest in 2015, Saudi Arabia cobbled together a coalition of Sunni-majority Arab states: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). By 2018, the coalition had expanded to include forces from Eritrea and Pakistan. They launched an air campaign against the Houthis with the aim of reinstating Hadi's government. For Riyadh, accepting Houthi control of Yemen would mean allowing a hostile neighbor to reside on its southern border, and it would mark a setback in its long-standing contest with Tehran.

After Saudi Arabia, the UAE has played the most significant military role in the coalition, contributing some ten thousand ground troops, mostly in Yemen's south. However, the UAE removed most of them after entering into conflict with its coalition allies in 2019, when it backed the separatist Southern Transitional Government (STC), which captured Aden. That November, Hadi and the STC president signed the Riyadh Agreement, which affirms that the factions will share power equally in a postwar Yemeni government. The separatists reneged on the deal for several months in 2020, but eventually they joined a unity government with equal representation of northerners and southerners. Though the formation of a government signaled progress in bridging Yemen's internal divisions, it did little to accelerate peace talks. In April 2022, Hadi ceded power to a governing council and fired a deputy scorned by the Houthis in hopes that the rebels would return to the negotiating table.

Although the U.S. Congress has been divided on the matter [PDF], the United States has backed the Saudi-led coalition, as have France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. U.S. interests include security of Saudi borders; free passage in the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the choke point between the Arabian and Red Seas and a vital artery for the global transport of oil; and a government in Sanaa that will cooperate with U.S. counterterrorism programs. But uproar over civilian deaths in coalition air campaigns, which often use U.S.-made weapons, and Saudi Arabia's role in the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi led the United States and other Western powers to limit some weapons sales and refueling of coalition aircraft. Lawmakers have also raised concerns that U.S.-made weapons are falling into the hands of AQAP and Houthi fighters. Still, the United States is Saudi Arabia's largest arms supplier, and President Donald Trump thrice vetoed bills that would have halted arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

President Joe Biden said he would end U.S. support for the coalition's military offensive, including the sale of weapons, and signaled a shift to diplomacy by appointing a special envoy to Yemen. Yet, U.S. defense contractors still oversee the servicing of Saudi aircraft that carry out offensive operations, and the administration has approved the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia for defense purposes. Shortly after taking office, Biden reversed the Trump administration's last-minute designation of the Houthis as a terrorist group, citing the move's potential damage to aid deliveries in Yemen.

What is the role of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula?

AQAP, in Yemen since the early 1990s, has benefited from the more recent chaos. In 2015, it captured the coastal city of Mukalla and released three hundred inmates, many believed to be AQAP members, from the city's prison. The militant group expanded its control westward to Aden and seized parts of the city before coalition forces recovered much of the region in 2016. AQAP has also provided Yemenis in some areas with security and public services unfulfilled by the state, which has strengthened support for the group.

The U.S. State Department warns that Yemen's instability has weakened long-running counterterrorism efforts [PDF], which rely heavily on air strikes. The Barack Obama administration conducted an estimated 185 strikes over eight years, while the Trump administration launched nearly 200 in its four years. These air strikes have killed several high-level AQAP members, including former leader Nasser al-Wuhayshi and top official Jamal al-Badawi, who was allegedly involved in the USS Cole bombing. But the U.S. strikes have also resulted in the deaths of more than one hundred civilians, watchdog groups say.

For years, AQAP vied for influence with the Houthis and the self-declared Islamic State, especially in the central al-Bayda Governorate. The Islamic State marked its 2015 entrance into Yemen with suicide attacks on two Zaydi mosques in Sanaa, which killed close to 140 worshippers. Though the group has claimed other high-profile attacks, including the assassination of Aden's governor in late 2015, its following lags behind that of AQAP. In 2021, the United Nations estimated that the Islamic State had hundreds of fighters [PDF] in Yemen, while AQAP had around seven thousand [PDF] as of mid-2020. Opposition from the Houthis has reportedly debilitated both groups, but experts warn against discounting their possible resurgence.

What has the humanitarian impact been?

With around three-quarters of its population living in poverty, Yemen has long been the Arab world's poorest country, and its humanitarian crisis has been called one of the worst in the world. Disease runs rampant; suspected cholera cases passed two hundred thousand [PDF] in 2020. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is harder to assess, since there is no comprehensive caseload data. Some twelve thousand cases have been reported to the World Health Organization, but health analysts say the actual count is likely much higher. Moreover, many countries cut back on critical aid to Yemen amid the crush of the pandemic, leading the United Nations to reduce food rations for some eight million Yemenis in January 2022. Three out of four Yemenis require humanitarian aid and protection, and four million are internally displaced [PDF], according to the UN refugee agency.

The situation has worsened under a yearslong de facto land, sea, and air blockade imposed by coalition forces, which has obstructed the flow of vital supplies of food and medicine and helped drive up prices of essential goods. Under the 2022 cease-fire, prices dropped significantly, but with the expiration of the truce, many Yemenis fear that high costs will return. The UN Development Program estimates that more than 370,000 people have died as a result of the war, with indirect causes such as lack of food, water, and health services causing almost 60 percent of deaths.

In addition, the United Nations has found [PDF] that both Houthi and coalition forces have knowingly attacked civilian targets in violation of international law. This includes the destruction of a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in 2015. Torture, arbitrary arrests, and forced disappearances are among the other alleged war crimes perpetrated by both sides.

What are the prospects for a solution to the crisis?

UN-backed peace negotiations have made limited progress. The 2018 Stockholm Agreement averted a battle in the port city of Hodeidah, a vital hub for aid; but there has been little success in implementing the accord's provisions, which includes the exchange of more than fifteen thousand prisoners and the creation of a joint committee to de-escalate violence in the city of Taiz.

Observers worry that friction among regional actors, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, is prolonging the war. Conditions deteriorated in late 2019, when the Houthis claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Saudi oil facilities. UN monitors concluded that the Houthis did not carry out the attack, while the Saudi-led coalition blamed Iran.

Peace efforts gained momentum in April 2022 when Yemen's new governing council helped consolidate anti-Houthi forces. Later that month, the Houthis and coalition forces coordinated their first nationwide cease-fire in years, which allowed commercial flights to resume from Sanaa and some fuel ships to dock in Hodeidah. The parties extended the truce several times, but after six months of relative peace, failed to renew it again. Recently improved relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran and ongoing talks between Riyadh and the Houthis have buoyed hopes for another extension of the cease-fire, but the exclusion of the governing council and STC from the talks has raised questions about the prospects for peace.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yemen's Tragedy: War, Stalemate, and Suffering

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Yemen's internal divisions and a Saudi-led military intervention have spawned an intractable political, military, and humanitarian crisis.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
OCHA included the figure in an update within its latest Global Humanitarian Overview, where it gave a description of the context, crisis and humanitarian needs in Yemen. It said the conflict had intensified this year, with 47 identifiable front lines by the end of October, up from 33 at the start of this year.

"The war had already caused an estimated 233,000 deaths, including 131,000 from indirect causes such as lack of food, health services and infrastructure", it said.

More than 3,000 child deaths

"Hostilities have directly caused tens of thousands of civilian casualties; 3,153 child deaths and 5,660 children were verified in the first five years of the conflict, and 1,500 civilian casualties were reported in the first nine months of 2020."

The chief UN humanitarian official in Yemen, Altaf Musani, the acting Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, said in a statement on Tuesday that there had been artillery shelling of residential areas in the city of Taizz, a violation of international law. Preliminary reports indicated that two children had been killed, with a further three children and four women injured.

"These senseless attacks, with so many children and women casualties, are horrific and inexcusable," Mr. Musani said. "Today, more families are grieving for children who died needlessly."

UNICEF said 11 children, including a one-month old baby, had been killed in the past three days, in separate attacks in Taizz and Al Hudaydah govenorate.

"Verification is still ongoing, and the actual number of casualties may be higher", Philippe Duamelle, UNICEF Representative to Yemen, said in a statement.

"The killing of children is appalling. Children should be protected at all times."

Yemen's complex civil war began in earnest in 2015, foisting disease, hunger and economic collapse on an already impoverished population. In 2020 the violence escalated and the hardship deepened with torrential rains, a fuel crisis, COVID-19 and desert locust infestations that are expected to cause damage and loss worth $222 million to staple crops, animals and livestock.

'Imminent catastrophe'

Last month UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that Yemen was in "imminent danger of the worst famine the world has seen for decades" and Henrietta Fore, head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) , said the country was facing "an imminent catastrophe".

UNICEF's humanitarian appeal for Yemen for 2020, requiring $535 million, has received just $237 million - a funding gap of almost $300 million.

OCHA said it was very difficult to bring aid into Yemen, citing an extremely restricted operating environment and a huge funding shortfall that had crippled the humanitarian response.

"By mid-2020, Yemen had returned to alarming levels of food insecurity and acute malnutrition. All indications suggest that the severity of needs for large sections of the population is increasing. COVID-19 has compounded food insecurity, mainly due to limited work opportunities, lower incomes and reduced remittances", OCHA said.

$3.4 billion appeal

OCHA is appealing for $3.4 billion for Yemen, part of an overall $35 billion humanitarian appeal that it launched on Tuesday.

UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths has been mediating between the warring sides and called last month for the parties to the conflict to "take the final decisions required" to implement a pact that aims to bring a nationwide ceasefire, specific measures to improve the lives of Yemenis, and the resumption of the political process to reach a lasting peace.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
UN humanitarian office puts Yemen war dead at 233,000, mostly from 'indirect causes'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Almost a quarter of a million people have died in Yemen's war, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on its website on Tuesday, confirming the huge toll from a conflict that has ravaged Yemen's economy and created the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Crime of Hunger: Yemen's Humanitarian Crisis

# data[].attributes.subject
The Crime of Hunger: Yemen's Humanitarian Crisis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This article is a part of "Famines as Mass Atrocities: Reconsidering Violence, Memory and Justice in Relation to Hunger". A project funded by the Swedish Research Council, led by Camilla Orjuela and Swati Parashar from the School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University.
In this article I pay attention to hunger, which after a long decline, is once again on the rise. Approximately 135 million people across 55 countries are suffering from acute food insecurity (FAO 2020). Famines have been the topic of debates for decades, and our understanding of their causes has shifted from the Malthusian perception of scarce resources and population growth to political processes. Famines are human-made, and can be regarded as crimes (Marcus 2003; de Waal 2017), and a case in point is Yemen (WPF 2019). The country is currently in the midst of a crisis of mass hunger where actors such as Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels have implemented deliberate policies aimed at exacerbating and controlling people's hunger (MERIP 2018; McNeill 2017; WFP 2019).

In a previous case study of Yemen's mass hunger, I analysed the context using the concept of famine crimes (Marcus 2003) in combination with Tyner's (2018) conditions of actor intentionality. The three levels were ability, opportunity, and awareness (Ibid., 200), and were chosen to analyse the causes and perpetrators of the country's hunger. The aforementioned research constitutes the foundation of this article about mass hunger and human accountability. The article will first, from a scholarly perspective, discuss hunger in order to illustrate how human involvement can engender it, and thereafter apply this understanding of starvation to what is perhaps the defining crisis of hunger of our time - Yemen.

Scholars studying famines have suggested that starvation should be conceptualized as a crime and one of the more salient proposals outlines famine crimes with four degrees of severity (Marcus 2003; de Waal 2017; Tyner 2018; Conley and de Waal 2019). The first degree is the most intentional and the fourth is the least intentional:

1. When famine is used as a tool of genocide to exterminate people purposefully.

2. Instances when famine is inflicted in pursuit of other objectives.

3. When governments and institutions are aware of the harm caused by famine yet remain indifferent.

4. When governments are unable to respond to the crisis of famine effectively.

The concept of famine crimes remains an academic contribution with no legal consequence for actors responsible for faminogenic behaviour[1]. According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, it is illegal to starve civilians deliberately, but famine legal cases are uncommon due to the lack of a comprehensive legal foundation (Dopplick 2009; DeFalco 2011). For example, according to the categorizations mentioned above, famine crimes were arguably committed in 1967-1970 during the Nigerian-Biafran conflict, due to an enforced blockade against Biafra (Mudge 1970). Yet, there were no tangible legal proceedings to determine famine perpetration in the conflict's aftermath, as in all, or almost all cases of starvation.

Despite the lack of legal ramifications, it is analytically valuable to apply the concept of famine crimes to cases of mass hunger in order to identify actors and their possible accountability. It also facilitates an understanding of the causes of famines - the political choices behind the hunger. The conceptualization of famine as a crime is useful when applied to individual cases of mass hunger. It enables us to tease out the characteristics of starvation and facilitates a debate about who is responsible for inflicting hunger. Therefore, the idea of famine crimes needs to be continuously acknowledged and used in discussions about hunger to achieve a shift in the common perception of what causes hunger. The discussions might also lay the ground for the establishment of a legal framework in the future. The impact of such a framework would not only have the effect of deterrence for possible perpetrators but also debunk the myth that famines are "...the result of natural disasters, not human misconduct" (Marcus 2003, 280). Moreover, a comprehensive legal framework would empower the international community to investigate possible criminal behaviour for prosecution (Ibid.).

It is important to acknowledge that famines are not necessarily the result of a breakdown of a system or distribution network, but instead often the result of successfully implemented policies by actors with political, military, and economic interests. If we recognize that hunger is caused by human involvement, it becomes increasingly clear that we need to talk about hunger in a language of mass atrocities, with perpetrators and victims - famine crimes and not natural disasters. Scholars have stressed that this language transition will contribute to the general understanding of famines as human-made and thus change the way we deal with these political events (Edkins 2007; de Waal 2017).

While natural factors such as insect infestations and weather conditions can play a role in causing famines, it is structural factors such as long-term poverty and corruption which can severely impact nutrition levels in a country. Additionally, hunger can be caused by more direct factors stemming from political choices and conflict such as economic blockades, and destruction of infrastructure, and restricted mobility. Mass hunger is both an outcome, and a political process, of deprivation, which often can be traced back to actors responsible for driving the development through actions or inactions that "...impede the capacity of targeted persons to access the means of sustaining life" (Conley and de Waal 2019, 699).

In the case of Yemen, years of pervasive poverty, unemployment, and poor political governance in combination with a violent civil war has resulted in what the UN calls the worst humanitarian crisis in the world (UN News 2019). A forecast for 2020 by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN) has predicted increasing levels of acute food insecurity due to the combined effects of the conflict and a macroeconomic crisis (FSIN 2020, 194). This prediction was made before the coronavirus outbreak, which, together with the current crisis of mass hunger, results in an even more dire medical emergency (Leijon 2020)[2]. In 2019 before the pandemic, 20 million people in Yemen were food insecure (FAO 2019). Of a population of approximately 30 million, roughly two-thirds were experiencing some degree of hunger, and about 24 million people were reliant on relief aid (UN News 2020).

There are, thus, complex constellations of actors and motives which drives Yemen's widespread hunger. Yemen's civil war erupted in 2015, has killed and displaced thousands and is still ongoing. Direct violence has damaged civilian infrastructure, and belligerents of the conflict have restricted people's mobility through checkpoints and economic blockades, severely disrupting medical infrastructure and food supply chains (Mundy 2018; WFP 2019; HRW 2019). One major cause of the mass hunger in Yemen is the destruction of civilian infrastructure by actors of the conflict. A few, yet salient, key actors include Saudi Arabia which backs the internationally recognized government of Yemen and heads the Saudi-Coalition, and the anti-government Houthi rebels. Admittedly, the conflict in Yemen consists of a much more complex array of actors and interests worthy of analysis, yet this is not the focus of this article.

Even before the start of the war, Yemen's infrastructure was underdeveloped with unreliable access to electricity and poor transport networks which created a dependence on expensive generators and fuel. These conditions inhibited the competitiveness of firms and has been made much worse by the ongoing conflict (Moyer et al. 2019, 23). Discriminate and indiscriminate targeting of civil infrastructure by the different sides of the conflict has resulted in damages. As a consequence, food distribution networks and access to health services and basic utilities have been severely disrupted. The loss of crucial societal infrastructure has increased Yemen's vulnerability to famine and disease and increased the country's reliance on external humanitarian aid (Alles 2017). The belligerents of the civil war have also imposed national economic blockades and domestic checkpoints which restricts and controls people's movement within the country. The combination of politicization of humanitarian aid, where donors can be selective to which territories aid is rendered, and large transfers of arms from the international arms trade makes Yemen's hunger crisis a confluence of human policies and interests.

The destruction of infrastructure cannot be blamed on natural disasters or coincidences but has been carried out by a range of actors pursuing their interests (Høvring 2019). Both proxy and directly involved actors have contributed to, and continue to drive, the crisis of hunger in Yemen through systematic policies (Cumming-Bruce 2019). People are being starved through blockades, checkpoints, and destruction of infrastructure vital to food supply chains and medical assistance (Thornberry 2018). The nature of the hunger crisis and its avoidable hunger-related deaths make the topic of actor accountability highly relevant. While there, to varying degrees, are many actors involved, this article focuses on two of the largest actors directly involved: Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels.

Saudi Arabia and the coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 to support the internationally recognized government against the anti-government Houthi rebels. According to Martha Mundy, who has conducted field and archival research in Yemen, there exists compelling evidence showing that the strategy of the Saudi-Coalition has been to obliterate domestic food production (Mundy 2017). Saudi Arabia has repeatedly conducted airstrikes which have destroyed both military and civilian targets such as hospitals, farms, roads, and residential areas. These tactics by Saudi Arabia have effectively turned starvation into a weapon of war by depriving the population of healthcare services and food distribution networks. Further, Saudi Arabia also has destroyed fishing boats and detained and killed fishers (WPF 2019, 9).

The Houthi rebels has used similar tactics by launching ballistic missiles towards Saudi Arabia and shelling targets within Yemen - both civilian and military (Mundy 2018; Barrington and El Yaakoubi 2019). These actions indicate intentionality and political interest where the actors actively contribute to the increase of food insecurity, and it could be argued that there are power and political advantages in controlling the production and distribution of food. The situation in Yemen bears similarity with the historical example put forward by Hopma: during the Middle Ages, the control of food exerted power over people, specifically walled cities under siege, were forced to surrender because of food deprivation (Hopma 2017).

Actor accountability is a somewhat controversial topic as the concept of famine crimes, as previously mentioned, is not currently backed by legal provisions. It is also somewhat difficult to provide evidence of the intentional starving of civilians under current international law. However, if there is to be any hope for ameliorating current famines and diminishing the risk of future famines through deterrence, we need to talk about the actors responsible for faminogenic policies. Thus, it becomes relevant to discuss the involved actors along the conditions of intentionality presented by Tyner (2018). Arguably, Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels have both the opportunity and the ability to either prevent or exacerbate the hunger in Yemen. They also show an awareness of the faminogenic consequences of their behaviour, due to their continued actions.

Thus, if we apply the theories of famine crimes and actor intentionality on the case of Yemen, it is possible to identify examples of varying degrees of famine crimes being committed. Saudi Arabia's and the Houthi rebels' actions could be construed to fit into degree two of famine crimes as their violent actions implemented to stop the opposing side have had severe repercussions for food production and distribution in Yemen. This categorization could be a useful tool in establishing potential future accountability. As Conley and de Waal (2019, 720-721) argue, the clarification of criminal liability concerning faminogenic practices might provide recompense for victims and act as deterrence for future crimes. Even if it does not, it is a vital embarkation towards a shift in our understanding and interaction with hunger. Conley and de Waal (2019, 721) also argue that although criminal prosecution for famine crimes might seem like a distant reality, the stigmatization of faminogenic practices could potentially alter what is deemed acceptable in the political and social sphere.

In Yemen, involved actors have actively sought to deprive the population of access to basic services and food by destroying infrastructure that provides it, which result in the mass hunger being a political process of deprivation. The hunger can, therefore, be considered as preventable as years of poor political governance and enduring conflict is taking its toll on the country's infrastructure and food supply chains. However, it is likely that the actors and belligerents are unwilling to sacrifice their interests for the good of Yemen's population. Since the concept of famine crimes highlight human accountability, involved actors can be identified, and their intentionality established.

Consequently, in the future, actors could be held accountable for their arguably faminogenic policies which have had adverse effects on Yemen's hunger. As Marcus (2003, 280) postulates, a more comprehensive legal codification of famine crimes will not only deflate the myth that famines are natural occurrences but would also allow for identification and prosecution of criminal behaviour. The examination of the mass hunger in Yemen contributes to our understanding of hunger as a public crime based on human intentionality and political actions. Mass hunger does not just happen - it is inflicted. The situation in Yemen exemplifies the effect of human involvement and shows that mass hunger is actor-driven and not a natural phenomenon.
Notes
[1] A term devised by David Marcus (2003, 245) with the definition of "creating or aiding in the creation of famine"

[2] Also read the research project's four-part blog series on hunger at the University of Gothenburg's School of Global Studies blog: https://www.blogalstudies.com/
References
Alles, Larissa. 2017. 'Missiles and Food: Yemen's Man-Made Food Security Crisis'. Oxfam. https://doi.org/10.21201/2017.1299.

Barrington, Lisa, and Aziz El Yaakoubi. 2019. 'Yemen Houthi Drones, Missiles Defy Years of Saudi Air Strikes'. Reuters, 17 September 2019. https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN1W22EQ.

Conley, Bridget, and Alex de Waal. 2019. 'The Purposes of Starvation Historical and Contemporary Uses'. Journal of International Criminal Justice 17 (4): 699-722. https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqz054.

Cumming-Bruce, Nick. 2019. 'War Crimes Committed by Both Sides in Yemen, U.N. Panel Says'. The New York Times, 3 September 2019, sec. World. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/world/middleeast/war-crimes-yemen.html.

DeFalco, R. C. 2011. 'Accounting for Famine at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: The Crimes against Humanity of Extermination, Inhumane Acts and Persecution'. International Journal of Transitional Justice 5 (1): 142-58. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijr001.

Dopplick, Renee. 2009. 'Inside Justice | Famine and International Criminal Law Under the Rome Statute'. 2009. http://www.insidejustice.com/intl/2009/04/27/famine_rome_statute/.

Edkins, Jenny. 2007. 'The Criminalization of Mass Starvations: From Natural Disaster to Crime against Humanity'. In The New Famines: Why Famines Persist in an Era of Globalization, by Stephen Devereux, 367. New York: Routledge.

FAO. 2019. 'FAO and the Crisis in Yemen : FAO in Emergencies'. 2019. http://www.fao.org/emergencies/crisis/yemen/intro/en/.

---. 2020. 'FAO - News Article: Global Report on Food Crises Reveals Scope of Food Crises as COVID-19 Poses New Risks to Vulnerable Countries'. 21 April 2020. http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1271868/icode/.

Food Security Information Network (FSIN). 2020. '2020 Global Report on Food Crises: Joint Analysis for Better Decisions'. Rome, Italy and Washington, DC: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); World Food Programme (WFP); and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://www.fsinplatform.org/global-report-food-crises-2020.

Hopma, Justa. 2017. 'Famine Doesn't Just "happen" - and Those Who Cause It Must Be Held to Account'. The Conversation. 19 January 2017. http://theconversation.com/famine-doesnt-just-happen-and-those-who-cause-it-must-be-held-to-account-71519.

Høvring, Roald. 2019. 'YEMEN: The Man-Made Disaster Must End'. Norwgian Refugee Council. 25 February 2019. https://www.nrc.no/news/2019/february/yementhe-man-made-disaster-must-end/.

HRW. 2019. 'Yemen: Houthi Landmines Kill Civilians, Block Aid'. Human Rights Watch. 22 April 2019. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/22/yemen-houthi-landmines-kill-civilians-block-aid.

Leijon, Johan. 2020. 'Yemen's Dual Burden of Starvation and COVID-19'. School of Blogal Studies - University of Gothenburg (blog). 14 May 2020. https://www.blogalstudies.com/post/yemen-s-dual-burden-of-starvation-and-covid-19.

Marcus, David. 2003. 'Famine Crimes in International Law'. The American Journal of International Law 97 (2): 245-81. https://doi.org/10.2307/3100102.

McNeill, Sophie. 2017. '"Catastrophic" Yemen Crisis Grows as Blockade Cuts Red Cross and UN Aid'. Text. ABC News. 8 November 2017. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-08/yemen-crisis-grows-as-port-closure-blocks-aid/9128598.

MERIP. 2018. 'Yemen Dispatch | MERIP'. Middle East Research and Information Project:Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971 - 'Yemen Dispatch'. 30 January 2018. https://merip.org/2018/01/yemen-dispatch/.

Moyer, Jonathan D, David Bohl, Taylor Hanna, Brendan R Mapes, and Mickey Rafa. 2019. 'ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF WAR: On Development in Yemen'. UNDP, 72.

Mudge, George Alfred. 1970. 'Starvation As A Means Of Warfare'. The International Lawyer 4 (2): 228-68.

Mundy, Martha. 2017. 'Empire of Information: The War on Yemen and Its Agricultural Sector'. Middle East Centre (blog). 19 June 2017. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2017/06/19/empire-of-information-the-war-on-yemen-and-its-agricultural-sector/.

---. 2018. 'Report: Strategies of the Coalition in the Yemen War - World Peace Foundation'. World Peace Foundation. https://sites.tufts.edu/wpf/strategies-of-the-coalition-in-the-yemen-war/.

Parashar, Swati, and Camilla Orjuela. 2020. 'Famines, "Slow" Violence and Gendered Memorialisation'. In Routledge Handbook of Feminist Peace Research, 1 Edition. New York: Routledge.

Thornberry, Emily. 2018. 'The Famine Facing Yemen Is a War Crime - It Must Be Investigated | Emily Thornberry'. The Guardian, 22 November 2018, sec. Opinion. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/22/famine-yemen-war-crime-civilians-saudi-coalition.

Tyner, James. 2018. 'Famine, Violence, and the Intentional Politics of Letting Die'. Political Geography 62: 199.

UN News. 2019. 'Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen Remains the Worst in the World, Warns UN'. UN News. 14 February 2019. https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/02/1032811.

---. 2020. 'Funding Shortfall Affecting Critical Water, Sanitation Services in Yemen'. UN News. 12 June 2020. https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/06/1066192.

Waal, Alex de. 2017. 'The End of Famine? Prospects for the Elimination of Mass Starvation by Political Action'. Political Geography 62 (January): 184-95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2017.09.004.

WFP. 2019. 'World Food Programme to Consider Suspension of Aid in Houthi-Controlled Areas of Yemen | World Food Programme'. 20 May 2019. https://www.wfp.org/news/world-food-programme-consider-suspension-aid-houthi-controlled-areas-yemen. WPF. 2019. 'Accountability for Starvation Crimes: Yemen - Yemen'. ReliefWeb. 2019. https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/accountability-starvation-crimes-yemen.

Further Reading on E-International Relations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Crime of Hunger: Yemen's Humanitarian Crisis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This article is a part of "Famines as Mass Atrocities: Reconsidering Violence, Memory and Justice in Relation to Hunger". A project funded by the Swedish Research Council, led by Camilla Orjuela and Swati Parashar from the School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Summary

The area that comprises Yemen today has traditionally, since the nineteenth century, been divided in two along a north-south divide. What was once North Yemen was part of the former Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, while what used to be South Yemen fell under British influence starting in 1839 when the British captured the port of Aden. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, North Yemen became an independent republic while South Yemen continued under the British until Britain withdrew in 1967. British authorities left southern Yemen in November 1967 in the wake of an intense terrorist campaign. The two countries were formally unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990.

Recognition

U.S. Recognition of Yemen (Northern Yemen), .

The United States recognized the Kingdom of the Yemen as a sovereign state on March 4, 1946, in a letter from President Harry Truman to the Imam Yahya, the King of the Yemen.

U.S. Recognition of Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen), .

The United States was one of the first countries to recognize the Yemen Arab Republic, doing so on December 19, 1962.

U.S. Recognition of People's Republic of Southern Yemen, .

Although the People's Republic of Southern Yemen gained independence on November 30, 1967, the United States did not recognize it until December 7, when the U.S. consul general in Aden, William L. Eagleton, Jr. informed the new government authorities of the United States' decision. In 1970, the name of the country was changed to the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.

Diplomatic Relations

Establishment of Diplomatic Relations with the Kingdom of Yemen (North Yemen), .

Diplomatic relations were established on March 4, 1946, when the United States and Yemen agreed to the appointment of an American Special Diplomatic Mission to the Kingdom of the Yemen. William A. Eddy was named Chief of this mission and concluded a provisional agreement on relations between the two states on May 4, 1946.

First U.S. Minister to Kingdom of Yemen (North Yemen), .

On September 30, 1946, J. Rives Childs presented his credentials as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Yemen (North Yemen). Childs was also accredited to Saudi Arabia and was resident at Jidda.

Elevation of American Legation in Taiz (North Yemen) to Embassy Status, .

The American Legation at Taiz was raised to Embassy status on January 28, 1963. However, from 1962 until 1967 there was no U.S. Minister or Ambassador accredited to the Kingdom of Yemen, which during this time changed its name to the Yemen Arab Republic. The American Embassy was run by the chargé d'affaires ad interim.

Movement of American Embassy from Taiz to San'a (North Yemen), .

In 1966 the U.S. moved its embassy from Taiz, the old capital, to San'a, the new capital of the Yemen Arab Republic.

Diplomatic Relations Severed, .

The Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) severed relations with the United States on June 7, 1967 in the wake of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Severance of Diplomatic Relations, .

Chargé d'Affaires ad interim William L. Eagleton, Jr. was in charge of the American Embassy in Aden when the People's Republic of Southern Yemen severed diplomatic relations with the United States on October 24, 1969.

Diplomatic Relations Resumed and Reopening of American Embassy San'a, .

The United States reestablished diplomatic relations with the Yemen Arab Republic after a visit to San'a by U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers in July 1972. At this time, the Embassy in San'a reopened. Robert A. Stein served as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim. U.S. Ambassador William R. Crawford, Jr. presented his credentials on December 19, 1972, and was the first U.S. Ambassador resident in Yemen.

Resumption of Diplomatic Relations with the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen), .

The United States resumed diplomatic relations with the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen on Apr 30, 1990.

Unification of the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, .

On May 22, 1990, the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen announced that they would form a united "Republic of Yemen." The U.S. Embassy in Aden never reopened.

Resources

Department of State Country Fact Sheet: Yemen

Department of State Country Information: Yemen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yemen - Countries - Office of the Historian

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Saudi Arabia proposed what it described as a new peace offering on Monday to end the kingdom's nearly six-year-old war on the insurgency in neighboring Yemen, pledging to lift an air-and-sea blockade if the Houthi rebels agree to a cease-fire.

The offering, announced by Saudi Arabia's foreign minister in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, came as pressure has escalated on the country to help break a stalemate in the Yemen conflict, which the United Nations has called the world's worst man-made humanitarian disaster.

Millions of Yemenis, including children, are verging on famine partly because of the blockade, which has choked the delivery of food and fuel to the country, the Arab world's poorest.

The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, was quoted by Arab news media as saying that if the Houthis agreed to a cease-fire, the country would allow the reopening of the airport in Sana, the Yemeni capital, and would permit fuel and food imports through Hudaydah, a major Yemeni seaport. Both are controlled by the Houthis.

"The initiative will take effect as soon as the Houthis agree to it," Prince Faisal was quoted as saying.

There was no immediate official response from the Houthis, but their leaders have said before that there would be no negotiations unless the blockades were lifted first. Many prior attempts aimed at halting the conflict have failed.

Saudi Arabia began an intense bombing campaign six years ago this week aimed at routing the Houthis, who had forced the Saudi-backed government to flee and still control a vast swath of Yemen. The Houthis are backed by Iran, which Saudi Arabia regards as its regional adversary.

Saudi-led bombings and Houthi attacks have devastated Yemen's fragile economy and led to widespread civilian casualties, and 80 percent of the country's roughly 30 million people require humanitarian help. By some estimates nearly a quarter million Yemenis have been killed in the conflict, and millions face acute hunger or starvation.

The Saudi announcement came just a few weeks after President Biden, breaking with the previous administration of Donald J. Trump, announced an end to American logistical and intelligence support for the Saudi war effort in Yemen.

United Nations humanitarian officials have been pleading for eased access to vulnerable Yemenis isolated by the war, warning that famine already is beginning to take hold. After a visit to Yemen in early March, David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program, the U.N.'s anti-hunger agency, said "the famine is on a worsening trajectory."

Six years of war, Mr. Beasley said, had "completely devastated the people, in every respect."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Saudi Arabia Offers Cease-Fire in Yemen and Lifting of Blockade

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Saudi Arabia proposed what it described as a new peace offering on Monday to end the kingdom's nearly six-year-old war on the insurgency in neighboring Yemen, pledging to lift an air-and-sea blockade if the Houthi rebels agree to a cease-fire.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ending the Yemen war is both a strategic and humanitarian imperative

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Biden-Harris administration should make ending the war an urgent priority for both strategic and humanitarian reasons.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Tragedy of Saudi Arabia's War in Yemen

# data[].attributes.subject
The Tragedy of Saudi Arabia's War in Yemen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Tragedy of Saudi Arabia’s War in Yemen (Published 2018)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Khashoggi killing has cast light on Saudi tactics in Yemen, where an economic war has pushed millions to the brink of starvation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Saudi Arabia - Countries - Office of the Historian

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A March CNN report reignited calls, mainly from Democrats and progressive activists, for the US to do more to pressure Saudi Arabia to end what they call its "blockade" of Yemen.

The report said Saudi warships were blockading the Yemeni coast, preventing fuel tankers from docking in the country's main port of Hodeidah, and that this fuel blockade is directly contributing to the ongoing famine and humanitarian crisis in the country.

Understandably, this led some activists and lawmakers to demand Biden do more to make Saudi lift the blockade and allow in the desperately needed fuel.

There's just one problem: The Biden administration says there isn't a blockade - and that any restrictions that are in place aren't coming directly from the Saudis, but mainly from Yemen's internationally recognized government. The issue is exacerbated, they say, by the Houthi rebels who control most of the country.

That's a pretty stark disagreement. And it's one that has critical implications for the lives of millions of Yemenis who are caught in the middle.

Here's what we know about what's actually happening in Yemen, who is responsible for the shortages causing millions of Yemenis to suffer, and whether the Biden administration can or should be doing more to help.

CNN's blockade report launched a firestorm of controversy

Saudi Arabia, along with several other countries in the region that joined its war effort, has been fighting a war in Yemen since 2015. They're fighting to oust the Houthis, a rebel group backed by Iran that had just overthrown Yemen's internationally recognized government led by President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The Saudi-led coalition, which until recently was also supported by the US, wants to return Hadi, who currently lives in exile in Saudi Arabia, to power.

When Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war, they used military force to stop planes from landing and ships from docking in Yemen, saying such measures were necessary to stop the Houthis from smuggling in weapons, including from Iran.

But critics warned the blockade would keep much-needed food, fuel, medicine, and humanitarian aid from reaching desperate Yemenis, including millions of children, who are caught in the middle of the fighting.

That concern proved devastatingly prophetic.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the world's top authority on food security, said last year that 47,000 Yemenis were suffering from famine-like conditions and that more than 16 million - over half of Yemen's population - couldn't reliably and adequately feed themselves. United Nations agencies have said that at least 400,000 Yemeni children could die this year alone if conditions don't improve.

What CNN found last month fit the years-long pattern: Saudi warships had kept all oil tankers from docking in the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah since the start of the year.

"The Saudi vessels that patrol the waters of Hodeidah have control over which commercial ships can dock and unload their cargo," the outlet reported. "Some goods are getting through - CNN witnessed aid being loaded on to trucks at the port after being delivered by ship - but not any fuel to deliver them."

This is what has activists so angry. "Food and medicine can't be transported without fuel," said Hassan El-Tayyab, the Friends Committee on National Legislation's lead lobbyist for Middle East policy. "It's causing a humanitarian nightmare in Yemen right now."

What's more, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, hospitals are losing power because they don't have enough fuel to keep the lights on.

In early February, President Joe Biden promised the US would stop supporting the Saudi-led coalition's offensive operations in the war. But, he added, "We're going to continue to support and help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and its territorial integrity and its people."

In light of the CNN report, progressive activists and some Democrats want Biden to go further. Last week, nearly 80 Democrats sent a letter to the president demanding he do more to push Riyadh to end the blockade once and for all.

The problem, though, is that the Biden administration has a totally different read of the situation.

What the Biden administration says: It's not a blockade, and it's not really the Saudis

While reporting on the letter Democrats sent to Biden, I asked the State Department for comment, as the agency's special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, is leading America's diplomatic response to the crisis.

It turns out the State Department disagrees with the growing narrative since the CNN report's release.

"It is not a blockade," a spokesperson for the agency said Monday. "Food is getting through, commodities are getting through, so it is not a blockade."

However, the administration does acknowledge there has been a slowdown in the amount of fuel coming into the country, and they're concerned about it. "The United States understands the urgent need for fuel to get into Hodeidah port," Lenderking told me on Tuesday. "This is a constant priority in our conversations with ​the Republic of Yemen government​ and Saudi Arabia."

But the primary culprit for the fuel slowdown, the State Department and the National Security Council contend, is not Saudi Arabia but rather the Hadi government.

Here's why: Even though it doesn't actually control the bulk of the country and is operating out of Saudi Arabia, it is still the legitimate, recognized government of Yemen and thus retains authority over who is allowed to dock in Yemen's ports.

Which means that if the Hadi government doesn't grant permission to a particular ship to dock in Hodeidah (or elsewhere), that ship can't dock. The Saudi-led coalition enforces those decisions if necessary with its ships and planes, blocking any vessels Hadi's government says can't come in.

And that process of approving ships to dock is where the State Department says the real problem lies, leading to the fuel shortage.

The State Department said it opposes any arbitrary restrictions of commodities entering Yemen, but that "we respect the right of the government to control its access to ports." However, the spokesperson added, "We do press them and work with them to make sure that their process improves and runs as smoothly as possible."

In other words, nobody, including the Saudis, is solely for malicious purposes trying to cut off fuel from Yemen. It's just that the Hadi government's approval whims are the main issue here.

"It may have faltered, it may not be perfect, it may not be smooth, but it is a Yemeni government process, it is not a Saudi government process," the State Department spokesperson told me. "We are working with many government officials to try to improve it, to make it as smooth as possible."

Okay, so who's right?

It's important to keep three main questions in mind when trying to figure out who's right and who's wrong:

1. Is fuel being blocked from reaching Yemen's most vulnerable?

2. If so, who is responsible for blocking it?

3. Are they doing it on purpose?

The answer to the first question seems to be yes. Data from the United Nations Verification and Inspection Mechanism for Yemen, the UN body that inspects certain ships coming into the country, clearly shows a significant drop-off of fuel making it into the country over the past two months.

However, the Biden administration is correct that it's not exactly a "blockade," as UN data shows food and fuel are still getting in. The below snapshot from a March 2021 report shows that food imports actually increased from 2019 to 2020.

And even as fuel went down to zero in February and barely rose in March, food and other cargo were still getting into Yemen, including through Hodeidah.

As to who is blocking the fuel, both sides are kind of right and kind of wrong.

The Biden administration is correct that any ship carrying fuel must receive approval from the Hadi government to unload at a Yemeni port like Hodeidah. "They have the final say on who gets in," a spokesperson for the UN office overseeing the crisis in Yemen told me.

But Saudi Arabia's ships are the ones doing the actual physical blocking. So it is partly their fault, too, as they could choose not to do that.

The Houthis are partly to blame here, too. Experts told me the rebels aren't great about dispersing the fuel that is allowed to come off the ships. Sometimes they shut down gas stations so that the price of fuel they control on the black market goes up. So they are also responsible for why fuel isn't getting to those who need it.

As to the third question, is any of this happening on purpose, the answer also seems to be yes. All three parties - the Hadi government, the Saudis, and the Houthis - are guilty of purposely using fuel, and access to it, as a weapon in this war.

In 2018, the warring parties agreed in Stockholm, Sweden, to, among other things, use revenues from imports at Hodeidah to pay civil service salaries in Yemen. In March 2020, though, the Houthis diverted 50 billion Yemeni rials (roughly $200 million) and used the money mostly to fund their fight - a conclusion confirmed by the United Nations in January.

The State Department spokesperson made the same charge: "The Houthis profit from the trade, fuel, and those funds to support their warfront."

Experts told me in order to stop the Houthis from doing that, the Hadi government - with the Saudi-led coalition's help - has denied permits to fuel ships in Hodeidah.

In other words, the severe restrictions in fuel imports at Hodeidah aren't happening out of pure malice, but they are happening on purpose. It's part of an effort by the Hadi government and the Saudis to stop the Houthis from exploiting fuel revenues for their own benefit. The Hadi government "has declined to let them in [to Hodeidah] because of a long-running dispute with the Houthis over revenue payments," the UN spokesperson told me.

But that doesn't mean State is pleased with what's going on. The spokesperson said that the US is telling the Hadi government it should still allow fuel ships to dock and unload in Hodeidah despite their concerns over the Houthis. "We've really been encouraging them to understand the humanitarian imperative," they told me.

So case closed? Not exactly.

Activists say the Biden administration can and should still be doing more to pressure Saudi Arabia

It's true that the Hadi government is denying permits for some vessels. It's also true that the Houthis are siphoning off fuel for their own benefit. But could fuel flow more easily into Yemen if the Saudi-led coalition chose not to block ships from docking and unloading? Of course.

This is a point activists can't see past. "I don't buy that is the Yemeni government's fault. They do not have the navy or aircraft to bomb a ship that threatens to break the blockade," said Aisha Jumaan, president of the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation. "This is nonsense, and the State Department knows that."

"It is hard to fathom that after six years, the US is casting doubt about the existence of the oppressive blockade," she continued. "It is harder because it is from the Biden administration from whom we expected better judgment."

In other words, it's pretty clear that the Biden administration is downplaying the Saudi role during this entire episode. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on March 1 did "call on all parties to allow the unhindered import and distribution of fuel," but didn't specifically call Riyadh out.

That's surprising for two reasons, experts say. First, the Biden administration has said that human rights are " at the center of US foreign policy." Minimizing Riyadh's role in blocking fuel into Yemen isn't making human rights a priority.

Second, it's not like the Saudis have downplayed their own role. In March, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud proposed to reopen the airport in Sana'a in exchange for a ceasefire - the first time Riyadh openly acknowledged carrying out any kind of blocking effort in Yemen.

Further, the Saudi-led coalition allowed at least four fuel ships in Hodeidah's port in March after the Hadi government gave its approval, shortly following pressure from the CNN report. It's clear, then, that Riyadh plays a key role in deciding which ships do and don't get to operate in Hodeidah.

This is something UN World Food Program Director David Beasley noted openly last month. "The people of Yemen deserve our help. That blockade must be lifted, as a humanitarian act. Otherwise, millions more will spiral into crisis," he said in a speech to the UN Security Council. When I asked Beasley's team what he precisely meant by "blockade," a spokesperson said that "the fuel shortage is in reference to the coalition blockade."

Beasley's remarks follow many other instances of the UN calling the Saudi-led coalition's efforts a "blockade."

The question now is why the Biden administration won't more openly and forcefully deride Riyadh's involvement in blocking fuel from getting into Yemen.

Analysts say one consideration is that the US is trying to broker a peace agreement between the Saudi-led coalition, the Hadi government, and the Houthis. If the Biden administration berates the Saudis repeatedly, they might lose leverage with a key party in those talks.

Another reason experts noted is that the US is in the middle of negotiations to reenter the Iran nuclear deal, an accord Riyadh doesn't like. By not speaking out against Saudi Arabia's complicity in blocking fuel into Yemen, then Riyadh implicitly understands it isn't to speak out about the Iran diplomacy.

There's one more: Pushing for Saudi Arabia and its partners to "end the blockade" could lead to the dissolution of the UN ship-inspection system that was put in place to facilitate shipments during a war and humanitarian crisis and curb the smuggling of weapons to the Houthis. If that happens, then it'd be far easier for Iran to send arms to the Houthis and further inflame the war. That also wouldn't reverse the humanitarian disaster brought on by years of fighting.

Whatever the reason, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling on the Biden administration to "urgently push" Riyadh to stop helping keep fuel from reaching Yemeni ports.

"The interference, delay, and outright blocking of commercial goods and humanitarian assistance shipped to Yemen's ports is a principal cause of price inflation, food insecurity, economic collapse, and the failure of public services in Yemen," House of Representatives members wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Blinken on Tuesday.

It's unclear if Biden or his team will listen to them. What is clear, though, is that without Riyadh, a lot more fuel would be flowing into Yemen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
"It is not a blockade": US says Saudi Arabia isn't to blame for Yemen's fuel shortage

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A March CNN report reignited calls, mainly from Democrats and progressive activists, for the US to do more to pressure Saudi Arabia to end what they call its "blockade" of Yemen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
/ CBS News

Central Yemen - It's been almost 20 years since the September 11 attacks that prompted the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Washington's declaration of a "war on terror." But almost 2,000 miles away from Afghanistan, the group that launched the attacks on America is still operating with impunity.

Al Qaeda has taken advantage of the chaotic civil war in Yemen not only to survive, but to plan and carry out attacks on Americans and their allies.

CBS News correspondent Holly Williams got rare access to join Yemeni troops as they fight a bloody conflict that gets so little attention, it's sometimes referred to as "the forgotten war."

Yemeni government forces brought Williams and a CBS News photographer to the front line, where they're fighting for control of a barren expanse of desert. The troops are battling Houthi rebels who've seized the capital city of Sanaa and huge swathes of land around it.

The Saudi Arabian government invited CBS News to witness the conflict first-hand. The Saudis back Yemen's government and, along with the U.S., accuse Iran of arming the rebels. Both sides have been accused of committing war crimes over the course of the conflict, which is entering its eighth year.

In that time, the war has killed almost 250,000 people, according to the United Nations. Some of them have been victims not of bullets or bombs, but of starvation - the fighting has made it even harder for aid agencies to get food to those who need it in the country, which was already one of the poorest on Earth before the war started.

The same anarchy leaving people to die of starvation and treatable diseases has also left space for al Qaeda to thrive.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, has been hammered for years by U.S. drone strikes, but many analysts still consider it the most dangerous affiliate of the group that attacked America 20 years ago.

It was AQAP that trained the man who attempted to down a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day in 2009, with explosives sewn into his underpants. It also claimed responsibility for the 2015 attack in Paris that left 12 people dead, and an attack in Pensacola in 2019 that left three dead.

Sultan al-Arada, the Governor of Yemen's northern Marib province, which has seen some of the worst violence lately, told Williams that it would only be possible to rid his country of al Qaeda if the country can be united.

"We need a state," he said. "If we had a functioning government, we could clean them out."

More than 4 million Yemenis have fled their homes, many of them ending up in dusty camps for the displaced.

Abdullah, 12, lives in one of those camps. He told Williams that he wants to be a doctor when he grows up.

But as long as the war rages, there's little hope for children like Abdullah of realizing their dreams. There's just the desperation that groups like al Qaeda feed off.

Al Qaeda's Yemen affiliate recently celebrated the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, and like other Islamic extremist groups around the world, it has been inspired by their victory.
More

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
20 years after 9/11, al Qaeda is still a threat. Yemen's largely forgotten civil war has let the terror group thrive.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
CBS News Central Yemen - It's been almost 20 years since the September 11 attacks that prompted the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Washington's declaration of a "war on terror." But almost 2,000 miles away from Afghanistan, the group that launched the attacks on America is still operating with impunity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The armed conflict in Yemen has resulted in the largest humanitarian crisis in the world; parties to the conflict have killed and injured thousands of Yemeni civilians. According to the Yemen Data Project, more than 17,500 civilians were killed and injured since 2015, and a quarter of all civilians killed in air raids were women and children. More than 20 million people in Yemen are experiencing food insecurity; 10 million of them are at risk of famine.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have led a coalition of states in Yemen against Houthi forces that, in alliance with former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, took over Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in September 2014.

Over the past year, these alliances have fractured. Houthi forces, which still control much of northern and central Yemen, killed Saleh after clashes in December 2017. In southern Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have backed rival Yemeni groups-the Saudi-supported Yemeni government led by President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC).

In August 2019, clashes occurred between Yemeni government and STC forces, with the UAE carrying out airstrikes in support of the STC. Across the country, civilians suffer from a lack of basic services, a spiraling economic crisis, abusive local security forces, and broken governance, health, education, and judicial systems.

Yemen's economy, already fragile prior to the conflict, has been gravely affected. Hundreds of thousands of families no longer have a steady source of income, and many public servants have not received a regular salary in several years. The country's broken economy has worsened the humanitarian crisis.

Coalition and Houthi forces have harassed, threatened, and attacked Yemeni activists and journalists. Houthi forces, government-affiliated forces, and the UAE and UAE-backed Yemeni forces have arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared scores of people. Houthi forces have taken hostages.

Since March 2015, the coalition has conducted numerous indiscriminate and disproportionate airstrikes killing thousands of civilians and hitting civilian structures in violation of the laws of war, using munitions sold by the United States, United Kingdom, and others. Houthi forces have used banned antipersonnel landmines, recruited children, and fired artillery indiscriminately into cities such as Taizz, killing and wounding civilians, and launched indiscriminate ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia.

Unlawful Airstrikes

Human Rights Watch has documented at least 90 apparently unlawful Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, including deadly attacks on Yemeni fishing boats that have killed dozens and appeared to be deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects in violation of the laws of war. At time of writing, according to the Yemen Data Project, the Saudi-led coalition has conducted more than 20,100 airstrikes on Yemen since the war began, an average of 12 attacks a day. The coalition has bombed hospitals, school buses, markets, mosques, farms, bridges, factories, and detention centers.

In August 2019, the Saudi-led coalition carried out multiple airstrikes on a Houthi detention center, killing and wounding at least 200 people. The attack was the single deadliest attack since the war began in 2015. Human Rights Watch has documented at least five deadly attacks by Saudi-led coalition naval forces on Yemeni fishing boats since 2018, killing at least 47 Yemeni fishermen, including seven children.

Indiscriminate Artillery Attacks

Houthi forces have repeatedly fired artillery indiscriminately into Yemeni cities such as Taizz and Hodeida, as well as launched indiscriminate ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh's international airport. Some of these attacks may amount to war crimes.

Children and Armed Conflict

Since September 2014, all parties to the conflict have used child soldiers under 18, including some under the age of 15, according to a 2019 UN Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen report in 2019. According to the secretary general, out of 3,034 children recruited throughout the war in Yemen, 1,940-64 percent-were recruited by the Houthis.

In July, the UN secretary-general released his annual "list of shame" for violations against children in armed conflict during 2018. The list detailed that 729 children were killed or injured by Saudi-led coalition, 398 children were killed or injured by the Houthis, and the Yemeni government's forces were responsible for 58 child casualties.

Although the secretary-general listed the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in Yemen, he once again included the coalition in a category of parties taking steps to improve, despite overwhelming evidence that coalition forces killed and harmed children on a large scale in 2018.

Landmines

Houthi-planted landmines across Yemen continue to harm civilians and their livelihoods. Houthi forces have been using antipersonnel mines, improvised explosive devices (IED), and anti-vehicle mines along the western coast of Yemen, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths and injuries. The landmines have also impeded aid workers' abilities to reach vulnerable communities. Landmine use has been documented in six governorates in Yemen since 2015. Since January 2018, at least 140 civilians, including 19 children, have been killed by landmines in just the Hodeidah and Taizz governorates.

Landmines emplaced in farmland, villages, wells, and roads prevent civilians from going about their daily life, especially farmers whose crops and clean water supply are affected. Demining efforts suffer from poor coordination, misinformation, and inadequate training, and do not comply with International Mine Action Standards (IMAS).

Arbitrary Detentions, Torture, and Enforced Disappearances

Houthi forces, the Yemeni government, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and different UAE and Saudi-backed Yemeni armed groups have arbitrarily detained people, including children, abused detainees and held them in poor conditions, and abducted or forcibly disappeared people perceived to be political opponents or security threats.

The UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen found that UAE and UAE-backed forces practiced arbitrary detention and torture, including sexual violence, in detention facilities they controlled. The detainees subjected to abuse included suspected members of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, according to investigative media and human rights campaigners' reports.

Since late 2014, Human Rights Watch has documented dozens of cases of the Houthis carrying out arbitrary and abusive detention, as well as enforced disappearances. Houthi officials have also used torture and other ill-treatment. Former detainees described Houthi officers beating them with iron rods and rifles and being hung from walls with their arms shackled behind them.

Mothers, sisters, and daughters of abducted men have demonstrated in front of prisons across major Yemeni cities, searching for their kidnapped sons, fathers, brothers, and other male relatives, organized under a group named "Mothers of Abductees Association." The association reported that there are 3,478 disappearance cases, at least 128 of those kidnapped have been killed.

Attacks on Civil Society

Houthis continue to harass and prosecute without legal basis academics, students, politicians, journalists, and minority groups, including members of the Baha'i faith.

Blocking and Impeding Humanitarian Access

The Saudi-led coalition's restrictions on imports have worsened the dire humanitarian situation. The coalition has delayed and diverted fuel tankers, closed critical ports, and stopped goods from entering Houthi-controlled seaports. Fuel needed to power generators to hospitals and pump water to homes has also been blocked. Since May 2017, journalists and international human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have been facing restrictions by the Saudi-led coalition in using UN flights to areas of Yemen under Houthi control. The coalition has kept Sanaa International Airport closed since August 2016.

The Houthis have continued to impose severe movement restrictions, including the flow of aid, into Yemen's third largest city, Taizz, which has had a devastating impact on the local residents. Since 2015, the fight for control of Taizz between the Houthis and other armed groups has led to indiscriminate shelling and attacks against civilian areas.

The UN has accused the Houthis of stealing UN food aid in some areas controlled by the Houthi-authorities, and it promised to investigate corruption in its own agencies in the Yemen aid effort.

Violence against Women

Prior to the conflict, women in Yemen faced severe discrimination in law and practice. Warring parties' actions have exacerbated discrimination and violence against women and girls. Parties to the conflict have accused women of prostitution, promiscuity, and immorality using derogatory terms as part of their public threats and harassment against opponents. This increases risks of domestic violence, dissuades women and girls from movement outside the home, and seriously inhibits their participation in the economic and political spheres.

There is no minimum age of marriage and child marriage, which was prevalent in Yemen before the conflict. The practice has increased according to UNICEF.

Women, like men, have also faced torture and sexual violence during detention, according to the September report by the UN Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts, which verified 12 cases of sexual violence on five women, six men and a 17-year-old boy. Victims of sexual violence in Yemen are highly stigmatized, meaning vast underreporting is likely. Violence against women has increased 63 percent since the conflict escalated, according to the United Nations Population Fund.

Abuse of Migrants

Due to its position between the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, Yemen has been a key transit location for African migrants seeking employment opportunities in Saudi Arabia. In August, Human Rights Watch documented a network of smugglers, traffickers, and authorities in Yemen that kidnap, detain and beat Ethiopian migrants and extort them or their families for money upon their arrival.

Migrants who manage to elude capture and detention by Yemeni smugglers find their lives at increased risk as they travel through areas of active fighting in Yemen. Migrants' journeys are often delayed due to clashes between Houthi forces and groups aligned with the coalition. The Houthis and forces aligned with the Yemeni government have also detained, abused, and deported migrants. About 260,000 Ethiopians, an average of 10,000 per month, were deported from Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia between May 2017 and March 2019, according to the IOM, and deportations have continued.

Of the estimated 500,000 Ethiopian migrants who were in Saudi Arabia when deportation campaigns began in 2017, it is likely that most of them passed through Yemen and faced the hardships documented by Human Rights Watch.

Accountability

Arms sales to the warring parties continue from Western countries such as the US, France, Canada, and others who risk complicity in war crimes and the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. In September, a UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen stated that "The parties to the conflict in Yemen are responsible for an array of human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law. Some of these violations are likely to amount to war crimes."

The UN Group of Eminent Experts in September stated that several world powers, including the US, the UK, and France, may be complicit in war crimes in Yemen through arms sales and intelligence support given to the Saudi-led coalition.

The parties have failed to acknowledge any responsibility for violations and refuse to take any meaningful steps to remedy the situations in which they occur. This has resulted in a pervasive lack of accountability, which heightens disregard for the protection of the Yemeni population and foments a climate of impunity.

Despite mounting evidence of violations of international law by the parties to the conflict, efforts toward accountability have been inadequate. However, on June 2o, 2019, the UK government agreed to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia after the UK Court of Appeal in London ruled that the government's refusal to consider Saudi Arabia's laws-of-war violations in Yemen before licensing arms sales was unlawful. The ruling requires the UK government to reconsider its decision on arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The UK is appealing the court decision.

Despite multiple congressional efforts in the US to end US arms sales to Saudi Arabia that could be used unlawfully in Yemen, President Donald Trump used his veto power to block such efforts and continued his support to Saudi Arabia, American's largest weapons buyer. France is under pressure to stop its arms sales to members of the Saudi-led coalition after a surge in its sales to Saudi Arabia.

A positive step was the extension of the mandate of war crimes investigators in Yemen by the UN Human Rights Council in September after the group found evidence of grave violations by all sides in the conflict.

Key International Actors

The UN-brokered peace talks between the Houthis and the Yemeni government in Sweden in December 2018 achieved a cessation of hostilities in the coastal towns of Hodeida, Salif, and Ras 'Issa. The Stockholm Agreement did not cover other ground fighting and the new military fronts. The US, the UK and other states that support Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate militarily have also consistently been supporting the UN talks.

To date, the UN Security Council has used its sanctions regime against just one side, the Houthis, despite the fact that the Saudi-led coalition has committed numerous war crimes, according to research by the UN Group of Eminent Experts and groups like Human Rights Watch.

The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018 galvanized international scrutiny of Saudi Arabia's international law violations in Yemen and other states' potential complicity in abuses through arms sales. Norway, Finland, the Netherlands and Germany reviewed or suspended their arms sales to members of the Saudi-led coalition. Other countries, notably the US, Canada, France, and Australia are still supplying weapons or military equipment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
World Report 2020: Rights Trends in Yemen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The armed conflict in Yemen has resulted in the largest humanitarian crisis in the world; parties to the conflict have killed and injured thousands of Yemeni civilians. According to the Yemen Data Project, more than 17,500 civilians were killed and injured since 2015, and a quarter of all civilians killed in air raids were women and children.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The U.S. has removed its most advanced missile defense system and Patriot batteries from Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, even as the kingdom faced continued air attacks from Yemen's Houthi rebels, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show.

The redeployment of the defenses from Prince Sultan Air Base outside of Riyadh came as America's Gulf Arab allies nervously watched the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, including their last-minute evacuations from Kabul's besieged international airport.

While tens of thousands of American forces remain across the Arabian Peninsula as a counterweight to Iran, Gulf Arab nations worry about the U.S.'s future plans as its military perceives a growing threat in Asia that requires those missile defenses. Tensions remain high as negotiations appear stalled in Vienna over Iran's collapsed nuclear deal with world powers, raising the danger of future confrontations in the region.

"Perceptions matter whether or not they're rooted in a cold, cold reality. And the perception is very clear that the U.S. is not as committed to the Gulf as it used to be in the views of many people in decision-making authority in the region," said Kristian Ulrichsen, a research fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

"From the Saudi point of view, they now see Obama, Trump and Biden - three successive presidents - taking decisions that signify to some extent an abandonment."

Prince Sultan Air Base, some 70 miles southeast of Riyadh, has hosted several thousand U.S. troops since a 2019 missile-and-drone attack on the heart of the kingdom's oil production. That attack, though claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels, appears instead to have been carried out by Iran, according to experts and physical debris left behind. Tehran has denied launching the attack, though a drill in January saw Iranian paramilitary forces use similar drones.

Just southwest of the air base's runway, a 1-square-kilometer area set off by an earthen berm saw American forces station Patriot missile batteries, as well as one advanced Terminal High Altitude Area Defense unit, according to satellite images from Planet Labs Inc. A THAAD can destroy ballistic missiles at a higher altitude than Patriots.

A satellite image seen by the AP in late August showed some of the batteries removed from the area, though activity and vehicles still could be seen there. A high-resolution Planet Lab satellite picture taken Friday showed the batteries' pads at the site empty, with no visible activity.

A redeployment of the missiles had been rumored for months, in part due to a desire to face what American officials see as the looming "great powers conflict" with China and Russia. However, the withdrawal came just as a Houthi drone attack on Saudi Arabia wounded eight people and damaged a commercial jetliner at the kingdom's airport in Abha. The kingdom has been locked in a stalemate war with the Houthis since March 2015.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged "the redeployment of certain air defense assets" after receiving questions from the AP. He said the U.S. maintained a "broad and deep" commitment to its Mideast allies.

"The Defense Department continues to maintain tens of thousands of forces and a robust force posture in the Middle East representing some of our most advanced air power and maritime capabilities, in support of U.S. national interests and our regional partnerships," Kirby said.

In a statement to the AP, the Saudi Defense Ministry described the kingdom's relationship with the U.S. as "strong, longstanding and historic" even while acknowledging the withdrawal of the American missile defense systems. It said the Saudi military "is capable of defending its lands, seas and airspace, and protecting its people."

"The redeployment of some defense capabilities of the friendly United States of America from the region is carried out through common understanding and realignment of defense strategies as an attribute of operational deployment and disposition," the statement said.

Despite those assurances, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, the kingdom's former intelligence chief whose public remarks often track with the thoughts of its Al Saud ruling family, has linked the Patriot missile deployments directly to America's relationship to Riyadh.

"I think we need to be reassured about American commitment," the prince told CNBC in an interview aired this week. "That looks like, for example, not withdrawing Patriot missiles from Saudi Arabia at a time when Saudi Arabia is the victim of missile attacks and drone attacks - not just from Yemen, but from Iran."

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, on a tour of the Mideast in recent days, had been slated to go to Saudi Arabia but the trip was canceled due to what American officials referred to as scheduling problems. Saudi Arabia declined to discuss why Austin's trip didn't happen after the withdrawal of the missile defenses.

Saudi Arabia maintains its own Patriot missile batteries and typically fires two missiles at an incoming target. That's become an expensive proposition amid the Houthi campaign, as each Patriot missile costs more than $3 million. The kingdom also claims to intercept nearly every missile and drone launched at the kingdom, an incredibly high success rate previously questioned by experts.

While Greece agreed in April to lend a Patriot missile battery to Saudi Arabia, the timing of the U.S. withdrawals comes amid wider uncertainty over the American posture in the region. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries have renewed diplomacy with Iran as a hedge.

"I think we saw in Biden's statements on Afghanistan, the way he said things that he's clearly going to put U.S. interests first and obviously that came as quite a disappointment to partners and allies around the world who maybe hoped for something different after Trump," said Ulrichsen, the research fellow. "He sounds quite similar to an 'America First' approach, just sort of a different tone."

___
Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and Aya Batrawy contributed to this report.
Show Full Article

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
US Pulls Missile Defenses in Saudi Arabia Amid Yemen Attacks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The U.S. has removed its most advanced missile defense system and Patriot batteries from Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, even as the kingdom faced continued air attacks from Yemen's Houthi rebels, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
SANAA/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ahmadiya Juaidi's eyes are wide as she drinks a nutrition shake from a large orange mug, her thin fingers grasping the handle. Her hair is pulled back and around her neck hangs a silver necklace with a heart and the letter A.

Three weeks ago the 13-year-old weighed just nine kilograms (20 pounds) when she was admitted to al-Sabeen hospital in Yemen's capital Sanaa with malnutrition that sickened her for at least the past four years. Now she weighs 15 kilograms.

"I am afraid when we go back to the countryside her condition will deteriorate again due to lack of nutritional food. We have no income," her older brother, Muhammad Abdo Taher Shami, told Reuters.

They are among some 16 million Yemenis - more than half the population of the Arabian Peninsula country - that the United Nations says are going hungry. Of those, five million are on the brink of famine, U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock warns.

On Monday the United Nations hopes to raise some $3.85 billion at a virtual pledging event to avert what Lowcock says would be a large-scale "man-made" famine, the worst the world will have seen for decades.

More than six years of war in Yemen - widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran - have sent the impoverished country spiraling into what the United Nations describes as the world's largest humanitarian crisis.

Some 80% of Yemenis need help, with 400,000 children under the age of five severely malnourished, according to U.N. data. For much of its food, the country relies on imports that have been badly disrupted over the years by all warring parties.

"Before the war Yemen was a poor country with a malnutrition problem, but it was one which had a functioning economy, a government that provided services to quite a lot of its people, a national infrastructure and an export base," Lowcock told reporters. "The war has largely destroyed all of that."

"In the modern world famines are basically about people having no income and then other people blocking efforts to help them. That's basically what we've got in Yemen," he added.

HUNGER VS PANDEMIC

A Saudi Arabia-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 after the Iran-allied Houthi group ousted the country's government from Sanaa. The Houthis say they are fighting a corrupt system. The people's suffering has been worsened by an economic and currency collapse, and by the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.N. officials are trying to revive peace talks, and new U.S. President Joe Biden has said Yemen is a priority, declaring a halt to U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign and demanding the war "has to end."

Twelve aid groups, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Care International, have warned that 2.3 million children under the age of five in Yemen will go hungry this year if governments do not step up their funding on Monday.

Muhsin Siddiquey, Oxfam's country director in Yemen, recounted a conversation with an 18-year-old woman, displaced by the conflict and living in a camp in northern Yemen.

"She said that the coronavirus pandemic gives us two cruel choices: either we stay home and we die from hunger, or we go out and then die from the disease," Siddiquey told Reuters.

Official figures vastly underestimate the spread of COVID-19 in Yemen, according to the United Nations and aid agencies.

In 2018 and 2019, the United Nations prevented famine due to a well-funded aid appeal, which included large donations from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

In 2020 the United Nations only received just over half the $3.4 billion it needed, which Lowcock said was largely due to smaller contributions from Gulf countries. He urged them to pledge generously for 2021 and pay quickly.

The United Arab Emirates said on Friday it would pledge $230 million for 2021.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yemen's children starve as U.N. seeks billions to avoid vast 'man-made' famine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ahmadiya Juaidi's eyes are wide as she drinks a nutrition shake from a large orange mug, her thin fingers grasping the handle. Her hair is pulled back and around her neck hangs a silver necklace with a heart and the letter A.

# data[].attributes.headline
Political Map of Saudi Arabia and some basic information

# data[].attributes.subject
Political Map of Saudi Arabia and some basic information

# data[].attributes.headline
Yemen Crisis ***Check  here for current statistics on the current situation in Yemen. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Yemen Crisis ***Check  here for current statistics on the current situation in Yemen. 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
How is the crisis affecting children?

Thousands of children have been killed or maimed since the beginning of the conflict, and thousands more have been recruited into the fighting. Years of conflict, misery and grief have left millions of people in Yemen in need of mental health and psychosocial services.

The ongoing humanitarian crisis has increased the vulnerability of children and women to exploitation, violence and abuse, child labour, killing and maiming, recruitment and use of children by parties to the conflict as combatants and in various support roles, domestic and gender-based violence, child marriage and psychosocial distress.

The conflict has exacerbated the ongoing malnutrition crisis in Yemen. More than 2 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition, including more than 540,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition - a life-threatening condition if not treated urgently. The damage and closure of schools and hospitals has also disrupted access to education and health services. More than 2.7 million children are out of school, leaving them even more vulnerable.

What is UNICEF doing to help children in Yemen?

UNICEF is on the ground to save children's lives, to help them cope with the impact of conflict, and to help them to recover and resume their childhoods. Conflict and violence have pushed more families into poverty and deprivation. UNICEF is helping treat severe acute malnutrition in children by providing essential therapeutic food and medical supplies.

Children are also being helped with victim assistance and education on mines and explosive remnants of war. Meanwhile, UNICEF and partners are rehabilitating damaged schools and establishing safe learning spaces.
Check here for the most up to date statistics on the situation in Yemen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
8 years of conflict have left more than 11 million children in need of humanitarian assistance

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Overview

Since 2016, Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East and North African region, has been the midst of a civil war. In 2017, Yemen was declared the world's largest humanitarian disaster by the United Nations (UN). According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), "An estimated 80 percent of the population - 24 million people - require some form of humanitarian or protection assistance, including 14.3 million who are in acute need. Severity of needs is deepening, with the number of people in acute need a staggering 27 per cent higher than last year. Two-thirds of all districts in the country are already pre-famine, and one-third face a convergence of multiple acute vulnerabilities."

"Despite these immense challenges, the collective aid effort of the UN system, of NGOs, of Yemeni civil society has managed to reach more than 12 million people in 2019," according to Joel Charny, executive director of the Norwegian Refugee Council USA.

On Nov. 22, 2019, Martin Griffiths, the UN Special Envoy to Yemen reported to the UN Security Council that progress was being made towards a political solution. "We have seen the parties work together, including on the situation in southern governorates, the de-escalation of hostilities and economic crisis facing the war-torn nation, where a Saudi-led coalition backing the Government has been trying to defeat Houthi rebel forces during more than four years of brutal fighting. These are not small issues. Reaching compromises has been no small achievement."

At the end of 2019, there were indications that the agreements signed by the Yemeni government and the Houthi organization in Stockholm (Dec. 2018) and in Riyadh (Aug. 2019) were making a difference. In 2019 there were over 50 percent fewer civilian deaths than 2018 and a 50 percent increase in the number of people reached with aid from the World Food Programme. While these are promising developments, the UNHCR says that 24.1 million people are still struggling, and two out of every three Yemenis are unable to purchase basic staples because prices have soared as income has stagnated.

On Feb. 2, 2020, a three-year blockade was broken and the first flight of critically-ill patients left Sana on the way to Jordan. Several other patients are expected to be flown out in the coming weeks, however the situation remains dire. A report from Reuters on Feb. 6, 2020 warned that aid to rebel-controlled areas may have to be reduced because humanitarian workers can no longer ensure that it reaches those who need it most.

The global spread of COVID-19 has come at a time when conflict is escalating again in Yemen, with multiple attacks happening in the first few weeks of March. Concern over the potential for COVID-19 to overwhelm Yemen's decimated health care system has stopped the flights out of critically-ill patients. It has also prompted humanitarian agencies to only bring in staff who are absolutely essential - slowing the support for people inside Yemen to a trickle. Compounding the problem is the question of implementing social distancing and isolation measures in temporary housing and camps for displaced people. The threat from COVID-19 also comes as Yemen approaches its rainy season, which brings with it the potential for Cholera outbreaks. Last year's Cholera outbreak - which started during the rainy season - was the second-worst outbreak in global history and is still not officially under control. Despite the challenges posed by the humanitarian, health and safety situation in Yemen, people are still coming together to support each other, like these women who re-opened a sewing factory to make masks in response to the COVID-19 threat.

Yemen recorded its first case of COVID-19 on April 10, following which the Saudi-led coalition declared a two-week ceasefire though the Houthi rebels did not provide any type of response. The ceasefire was supposed to take effect the morning of April 16; coalition air strikes were reported the night before. COVID-19 comes at a time when Yemen's health infrastructure is essentially non-existent after years of civil war. In a news release on April 16, the International Committee of the Red Cross said, "Much-needed public health measures like lockdowns and curfews already make it difficult or impossible for many people to provide for themselves and their families. Small shops are shuttered. Cafes sit empty. Street vendors have lost their passing trade. The switch to online working could see many left behind. Over time, levels of hunger, malnutrition and chronic illness and stress linked to economic problems could soar."

Lisa Grande, the head of the UN's humanitarian program in Yemen shared the following thoughts with National Public Radio: "There are 41 major UN programs, and 31 of those programs will either be shut this month of April or reduced. We're talking food programs, health programs, water and sanitation programs, protection programs, shelter programs. So we have the crisis created by the war. We have the crisis created by COVID."

The Center for Disaster Philanthropy hosted a webinar on Feb. 13, 2020 entitled Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: Philanthropy's Role in Recovery, featuring speakers from the Norwegian Refugee Council USA, the Center for Global Development and Oxfam Colombia. The webinar explored the challenges of providing humanitarian aid in complex emergencies, such as the one in Yemen. Jeremy Konyndyk, senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development spoke about the importance of humanitarian advocacy alongside humanitarian aid. He used the example of the port blockades in Yemen during the civil war that required advocacy from many sources to resolve in order to allow humanitarian aid into the country. Jeremy reminded listeners that while advocacy is not costly when compared to large-scale humanitarian aid, it can have a major impact by ensuring that critical infrastructure and systems remain accessible to people who need it.

Impact

Yemen is ranked 177 out of 189 countries on the 2019 UNDP Human Development Index (HDI). It has an HDI score of 0.463 compared to the highest ranked country, Norway, which has an HDI score of 0.954; the United States ranks 15 th with an HDI score of 0.920. The average life expectancy in Yemen is 66.1 years; the mean length of education is 3.2 years (expected is 8.7) and the per capita income is $1,433. According to a recent report from UNDP, "Since 2014, war has driven poverty in Yemen from 47 percent of the population to a projected 75 percent by the end of 2019. If fighting continues through 2022, Yemen will rank as the poorest country in the world, with 79 percent of the population living under the poverty line and 65 percent classified as extremely poor."

The Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) says that, "The plight of Yemen is a triple man-made tragedy (conflict, looming famine, outbreak of cholera) and directly linked to the ongoing conflict." Sida adds, "Prior to the crisis, almost half of the Yemeni population already lived below the poverty line, with a high rate of unemployment and the basic social services on the verge to collapse. Violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law are reportedly widespread, in addition to a long history of food insecurity, malnutrition, and lack of access to water, sanitation and poor healthcare."

Approximately 3.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes due to the ongoing conflict. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):

Millions of internally displaced Yemenis live in makeshift shelters in urban and rural areas.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced are living in Hajjah, a district northwest of the capital Sana'a.

Of the refugees that have left Yemen, many flee to Oman, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan.

As of June 30, 2019, Ethiopia had taken in 44.8 percent (142,597) of the more than 300,000 Yemenis who have fled the country. Between 2015, when the crisis began, and June 2019, the United States has taken in 50 refugees from Yemen.

As of July 8, 2019, UNOCHA reported that there were 460,000 suspected cases of cholera including 200,000 children (in all of 2018 there were only 380,000 cases total). There were nine times as many cholera deaths compared to last year at 705. While there are 1,200 cholera treatment facilities around the country, their efforts have been hampered by flash flooding, the lack of access to clean water and poor maintenance of waste management systems.

Before 2019, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported that it was reaching seven to eight million people a month. However, since January 2019 this has risen to 10 million monthly, with a goal of increasing to 12 million people monthly as soon as possible. In May 2019, for the first time since 2014, WFP and Islamic Relief were able to reach the war-torn area of Nihm to provide two months food rations, water, hygiene kits and dignity kits. WFP was also able to reach Dhuraimi City in May for the first time in a year with the cooperation of both warring factions.

Yemen is one of the most water-poor countries in the world. It has no rivers and rainfall has been decreasing. It is in danger of soon running out of water. Agriculture consumes much of the water that is available - especially for fruit, vegetables and the narcotic khat. Tawfeeq al-Sharjabi, the Yemeni deputy water and environment minister, says, "for their part, only 55 percent of Yemeni households have access to safe drinking water, and this number shrinks to 35 percent in rural areas."

Yemen is also home to the third largest Somali refugee population in the world, about 250,000 people. This represents nearly 90 percent of Yemen's total refugees and asylum seekers. The crisis in Yemen has caused nearly 5,000 Somali refugees to opt to return home to Somalia over the past two years.

The conflict is destroying the country's infrastructure; schools, roads, bridges, hospitals and homes are hit regularly with bombs, particularly from air raids. The Yemen Data Project reported of the 3,362 air raids that occurred in 2018, "420 hit residential areas...on average, it is estimated that 600 civilian structures are damaged or destroyed every month."

The war is also taking a toll on human lives. A report issued in the fall of 2018 by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) estimated that 56,000 civilians and combatants had died between January 2016 and October 2018. ACLED estimates that the number is growing by about 2,000 per month but does not include those who have died of cholera or malnutrition. UNICEF estimates that a child dies every ten minutes in Yemen of preventable diseases; that is about 50,000 and growing each year.

While numbers from sources vary slightly, the overall picture as outlined in the Worldwide Threat Assessment image below, is clear. The civil war has created a humanitarian crisis almost beyond imagination.

A $4.19 billion international appeal for the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), which directs funding to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and humanitarian partners responding to the crisis, was launched in 2018 by the United Nations and its humanitarian partners. More than $2 billion was pledged at the 2018 International High-Level Pledging Event but more assistance is needed. The main objectives are to:

"Support life-saving and life-sustaining activities while filling critical funding gaps.

Promote needs-based assistance in accordance with humanitarian principles.

Strengthen coordination and leadership primarily through the function of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator and by leveraging the cluster system.

Improve the relevance and coherence of humanitarian response by strategically funding priorities as identified under the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP).

Expand the delivery of assistance in hard-to-reach areas by partnering with NGOs."

At the end of 2019, the HRP had funded $3.48 billion of the $4.19 billion, though significant needs remained in areas such as health, education and shelter.

Critical Needs

Unrestricted core support to humanitarian partners and UN agencies who support the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan is an efficient way to ensure best use of resources in a coordinated manner. Funding through the HRP ensures that resources are directed to support the plan and utilizes the best knowledge of humanitarian partners.

Financial support and supplies for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH).

Medical care for the treatment of cholera and malnutrition.

Support for food supplements to help address the high levels of malnutrition.

InterAction's NGO Aid Map can help funders find organizations working in Yemen.

Contact

If you are a responding NGO or a donor, please send updates on how you are working in this crisis to tanya.gulliver-garcia@disasterphilanthropy.org.

If you are a donor looking for recommendations on how to help in this crisis, please email regine.webster@disasterphilanthropy.org.

Learn More
Featured image source: © UNICEF/UN057347/Almang We welcome republication of our content. Please credit the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yemen Humanitarian Crisis - Center for Disaster Philanthropy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Overview Since 2016, Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East and North African region, has been the midst of a civil war. In 2017, Yemen was declared the world's largest humanitarian disaster by the United Nations (UN). According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), "An estimated 80 percent of the population [...]