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Yemeni civil war (2014–present)

The Yemeni civil war (Arabic: الحرب الأهلية اليمنية, romanizedal-ḥarb al-ʾahlīyah al-yamanīyah) is an ongoing multilateral civil war that began in late 2014 mainly between the Rashad al-Alimi-led Presidential Leadership Council and the Mahdi al-Mashat-led Supreme Political Council, along with their supporters and allies. Both claim to constitute the official government of Yemen.[123]

For other uses, see Yemeni civil war.

The civil war began in September 2014 when Houthi forces took over the capital city Sanaa, which was followed by a rapid Houthi takeover of the government. On 21 March 2015, the Houthi-led Supreme Revolutionary Committee declared a general mobilization to overthrow then-president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and expand their control by driving into southern provinces.[124] The Houthi offensive, allied with military forces loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, began fighting the next day in Lahij Governorate. By 25 March, Lahij fell to the Houthis and they reached the outskirts of Aden, the seat of power for Hadi's government.[125] Hadi fled the country the same day.[126][127] Concurrently, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched military operations by using air strikes and restored the former Yemeni government.[29] Although there has been no direct intervention by the Iranian government in Yemen, the civil war is widely regarded as part of the Iran-Saudi proxy conflict.[b]


Houthi insurgents currently control the capital Sanaa and all of former North Yemen except for eastern Marib Governorate. After the formation of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in 2017 and the subsequent capture of Aden by the STC forces in 2018, the pro-republican forces became fractured, with regular clashes between pro-Hadi forces backed by Saudi Arabia and southern separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates.[128] Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State have also carried out attacks against both factions, with AQAP controlling swathes of territory in the hinterlands, and along stretches of the coast.[129]


The UN brokered a two-month nationwide truce on 2 April 2022 between Yemen's warring parties, which allowed fuel imports into Houthi-held areas and some flights to operate from Sanaa International Airport to Jordan and Egypt.[130] On 7 April 2022, the Hadi government was dissolved and the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) took command of the Yemeni Republic, incorporating the Southern Transitional Council into its new government. The UN announced on 2 June 2022 that the nationwide truce had been further extended by two months.[131] According to the UN, over 150,000 people have been killed in Yemen,[132] as well as estimates of more than 227,000 dead as a result of an ongoing famine and lack of healthcare facilities due to the war.[133][134][135] The Wall Street Journal reported in March 2023 that Iran agreed to halt all military support to the Houthis and abide by the UN arms embargo, as part of a Chinese-brokered Iran-Saudi rapprochement deal. The agreement is viewed as part of Saudi Arabian-led efforts to pressure the Houthi militants to end the conflict through negotiated settlement; with Saudi and U.S. officials describing the concomitant Iranian behaviour as a "litmus test" for the endurance of the Chinese-brokered détente.[c] On 23 December 2023, Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen, announced that the warring parties committed to steps towards a ceasefire.[136]


The Saudi-led coalition's bombing of civilian areas has received condemnation from the international community.[137] According to the Yemen Data Project, the bombing campaign has killed or injured an estimated 19,196 civilians as of March 2022.[138] Houthi drone attacks targeting civilian areas in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Southern Yemen have also attracted global condemnation;[d] and the UN Security Council has imposed a global arms embargo on the Houthis since 2015.[e] The United States has provided intelligence and logistical support for the Saudi Arabian-led campaign,[27] and despite the Biden administration's pledge to withdraw U.S. support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen, it has announced the sale of weapons to the Saudi Arabian-led coalition.[139][140]

Historical context[edit]

When Islam first came to Yemen, it mostly took the form of Sunni & Ismaili Shia Islam, until the fall of the Hamdan tribe ruled Ismaili states in the 11th century Ayubid expansion, then the majority if Hamdan tribes converted to Zaydism, a Shia sect. It was not until the arrival of the Rasulids that Shafi'i Sunnism became popular. From there on, the two groups, Zaydis in the north and Rasulids in the South, started competing with each other. The state of rivalry was cut short by the fall of the Rasulid rule and the succession of imperialist powers' involvements in the Middle East, notably the expansionist Ottoman Empire.[141]


The defeat of the Ottomans in the first World War eventually gave way to the first (incomplete) unification of Yemen. This was possible during the Hamid al-Din dynasty under Imam Yahya and his son's rule. The unification also meant the establishment of a hierarchy within which Zaydis had authoritative power over Sunnis.[141] As a consequence, the difference in status became instituted and normalized. The Hamid al-Din dynasty faced the Zaydis' discontent due to a non-conformity to Zaydi traditions, thus coming to an end with the overthrow of Imam Yahya's grandson, Imam Badr, in 1962. What followed was a civil war in which republicans opposed royalists. Helen Lackner explains that such a division was not ideological; it was based on past feuds. Nonetheless, external powers like Saudi Arabia intervened for ideological motives, as the latter sought to maintain the monarchy system which it adhered to itself. Despite Saudi Arabia's original intentions, in 1970, the republican form was retained.[141]


While these developments took place in the North, liberation movements against British presence broke out, amounting to the creation of a socialist state, hence Soviet Union ally, in the Southern Arabian region. It was named the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY).[141]


The PDRY was involved in the internal disputes of its northern counterpart. It had previously supported the republicans in fighting off Saudi Arabia's influence, but it was the Hamdi regime in the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) that was most notorious for its policies that aimed to reduce Saudi presence in Yemeni politics. His rule was, nonetheless, short-lived.  A series of political unrest marked by the assassination of former presidents, led to Colonel Ali Abdullah Saleh's rise to the presidency of the Yemen Arab Republic. Saleh's rule lasted for 33 years. The major event that marked his regime was the unification of Yemen in 1990. His attempt was not entirely successful as a civil war broke out in 1994. However, he was able to come out of it victorious. Subsequently, the Republic of Yemen became constitutionally established.[141]


Saleh tried to maintain his position through constitutional amendments, hoping for his son to take over, but strong opposition and protests pressured him out of office. Meanwhile, the group "Friends of Yemen" was created, initially to stop al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) after evidence pointed at it as the main perpetrator behind multiple attacks on US military bases and equipment. The "Friends of Yemen" group became more involved in Yemen during the Arab Spring, after the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and United Nations recommended that the management of Yemen's "crisis" be put in the hands of global actors.[142]

United Nations response[edit]

The United Nations has been closely following the Yemeni war since its beginning. It has looked for solutions to alleviate security concerns in Yemen and stop the Hadi-Houthi conflict from escalating. The Peace and National Partnership Agreement in 2014 was its final attempt at quelling the dispute before it transformed into a war.[141]


The United Nations representative Baroness Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said on 2 April 2015 that she was "extremely concerned" about the fate of civilians trapped in fierce fighting, after aid agencies reported 519 people killed and 1,700 injured in two weeks. The UN children's agency reported 62 children killed and 30 injured and also children being recruited as soldiers.[362]


Russia called for "humanitarian pauses" in the coalition bombing campaign, bringing the idea before the United Nations Security Council in a 4 April emergency meeting.[363] However, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United Nations questioned whether humanitarian pauses would be the best way of delivering humanitarian assistance.[364]


On March 22, 2015, the UN declared its recognition of Hadi as the sole legitimate president and encouraged the peaceful resolution of the dispute. A few days later, Saudi Arabia intervened military with an air strike.[141]


On 14 April 2015, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution placing sanctions on Abdul-Malik al-Houthi and Ahmed Ali Saleh, establishing an arms embargo on the Houthis, and calling on the Houthis to withdraw from Sanaʽa and other areas they seized.[365] The Houthis condemned the UN resolution and called for mass protests.[366]


Jamal Benomar, the UN envoy to Yemen who brokered the deal that ended Ali Abdullah Saleh's presidency during the 2011–12 revolution, resigned on 15 April.[367] Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, formerly the head of the UN's Ebola response mission, was confirmed as the new UN Envoy to Yemen on 25 April.[368] The Panel of Experts on Yemen mandated by the Security Council, UN submitted a 329-page report to the latter's president on 26 January 2018 denouncing the UAE, the Yemeni government and the Houthis for torturing civilians in the Yemeni conflict.[369]


In December 2018, UN-sponsored talks between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government were expected to start. The UN also started using its jets to carry wounded Houthi fighters out of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, to Oman, paving the way for planned peace talks after nearly four years of civil war.[370]


According to United Nations, more than 3.6 million Yemenis have been displaced in the 5-year-old conflict. The World Food Programme, which feeds more than 12 million Yemenis needs more funding to continue the ongoing operations and ramp back up operations in the north. Without funding, 30 of 41 major aid programmes in Yemen would close in the next few weeks.[371]


On 27 September 2020, the United Nations announced that the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the Hadi government supported by the Saudi-led military coalition, agreed to exchange about 1,081 detainees and prisoners related to the conflict as part of a release plan reached in early 2020. The deal stated the release of 681 rebels along with 400 Hadi government forces, which included fifteen Saudis and four Sudanese. The deal was finalized after a week-long meeting held in Glion, Switzerland, co-chaired by UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths.[372] The prisoner-swap deal was done by the UN during the 2018 peace talks in Sweden which produced the Stockholm Agreement. The latter consisted of three major documents. The first one suggested the formation of a committee; the second called for the exchange of prisoners; the third aimed at creating the United Nations Mission to support the al-Hodeida Agreement (UNMHA).[141] Both parties agreed on several measures including the cease-fire in the strategic port city of Hodeida. A prisoner swap deal was made as part of the 2018 peace talks held in Sweden. However, the implementation of the plan clashed with military offensives from Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition, which aggravated the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, leaving millions suffering medical and food supply shortages.[372]


On 7 October 2022, the UN Human Rights Council adopted, without a vote, a futile resolution on Yemen that failed to establish a credible independent and impartial monitoring and accountability mechanism. The adoption came a year after the same body rejected the renewal of the mandate for the Group of Eminent Experts (GEE), an international, impartial, and independent body established by the Human Rights Council in 2017 that reported on rights violations and abuses in Yemen.[373]

Other developments[edit]

Armed Houthis ransacked Al Jazeera's news bureau in Sanaʽa on 27 March 2015, amid Qatar's participation in the military intervention against the group. The Qatar-based news channel condemned the attack on its bureau.[383] On 28 March, Ali Abdullah Saleh stated neither he nor anyone in his family would run for president, despite recent campaigning by his supporters for his son Ahmed to seek the presidency. He also called on Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi to step down as president and said new elections should be held.[384]


Rumors about Saleh's whereabouts swirled during the conflict. Foreign Minister Riad Yassin, a Hadi loyalist, claimed on 4 April that Saleh left Yemen aboard a Russian aircraft evacuating foreign nationals from Sanaa International Airport.[385] Later in the month, Saleh reportedly asked the Saudi-led coalition for a "safe exit" for himself and his family, but the request was turned down.[386]


King Salman reshuffled the Saudi cabinet on 28 April, removing Prince Muqrin as his designated successor. The Saudi royal palace said Muqrin had asked to step down, without giving a reason, but media speculation was that Muqrin did not demonstrate sufficient support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen.[387] A spokesman for Yemen's exiled government told Reuters on 29 April that the country would officially seek membership in the Gulf Cooperation Council.[388] Media reports have noted that the civil war has reached nearly all of Yemen, with one notable exception being the remote Indian Ocean archipelago of Socotra,[389] where the war spread due to the South Yemen insurgency in 2017.[390]


On 30 September 2019, Houthi rebels released 290 Yemeni prisoners in a move, stated by the United Nations as a revival of peace process, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.[391]


In September 2020, the United Nations announced a swap of "1081 conflict-related prisoners" between the two opponents, including Saudi and Sudanese troops fighting for the Saudi-led coalition.[392] In October 2020, two American hostages Sandra Loli and Mikael Gidada who had been captives for 16 months, were freed by the Houthi rebels in exchange for releasing 240 former Houthi combatants in Oman.[393]


In January 2021, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced his intentions of declaring the Houthi movement in Yemen a "foreign terrorist organization". Under the plan, the three leaders of the Houthis, known as Ansarallah, were to be listed as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. However, it induced a fear among the diplomats and aid groups that the move would cause issues in the peace talks and in delivering aid to the Yemen crisis.[394]


Although the United Arab Emirates had announced plans in 2019 to vacate Yemen and withdraw all its troops, the Arab nation continued to maintain its presence for strategic objectives. Reports in May 2021 revealed that the Emirates was building a mysterious airbase on Yemen's Mayun Island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Satellite images revealed that the construction work to build a 1.85 km (6,070 ft) runway, along with three hangars, on the island was completed on 18 May 2021. Military officials of the Yemeni government said that the UAE was transporting military equipment, weapons and troops to Mayun Island through ships. The island was considered a strategic location for anyone who controls it, offering power for operations into the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and East Africa, and for easily launching airstrikes into Yemen's mainland.[395]


On 7 October 2021, Bahrain, along with Russia and other members of the UN human rights council, opposed the council's investigations into the war crimes in Yemen. The members narrowly voted to reject the Netherlands' resolution to give another two years to the independent investigators to continue the probe to monitor atrocities in the Yemen war. In the past, independent investigators concluded that potential war crimes have been committed by all sides. An ally of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia is not a voting member of the council, but rights activists said the Kingdom heavily lobbied against the resolution.[396]


On 20 March 2022, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross reported that the Yemeni government and the Houthis agreed to release 887 detainees, following 10 days of negotiations in Switzerland. Both parties also agreed to visitation rights in detention facilities and likely more prisoner swaps in the near future. Hans Grundberg, the UN's special envoy for Yemen said that things are finally moving "in the right direction" toward a resolution of the conflict. This came after the recent Saudi-Iranian rapprochement mediated by China a week earlier.[397]

Environmental impact[edit]

Water[edit]

Yemen is facing one of the world's worst Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) crises. The lack of governance has left Yemen without a viable water supply. Poor sanitation and the lack of clean water has had a deteriorating effect on the health of Yemenis, which is apparent through the increasing cases of cholera in Yemen since 2015. The entire country has been affected by a water shortage and the price of drinking water has more than doubled. Drinking water has become unaffordable for most Yemenis. The problem in Yemen is widespread, thus making it difficult to prevent the problem from escalating because it is hard to supply everyone on a regular basis.


The Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at UNICEF, Geert Cappelaere, has explained that the fuel shortages in Yemen have deepened the water and health crisis. The water pumping stations in Yemen have been jeopardized as they are quickly running out of fuel and over 3 million people are dependent on these water pumps which have been established through public networks. The ICRC has been working closely with vulnerable people where the resources are limited but aim to prevent the water crisis from worsening by buying 750,000 liters of diesel to provide clean water for people living in Yemen. Already a scarce commodity, the amount of water withdrawn from wells in 2016 reached unsustainable levels. The ICRC has also been working carefully with local authorities to provide water to 330,000 people in Aden. They have also installed wells nearby Aden to provide water to the neighborhood when they are experiencing water shortages.


Water resources have been used by both sides during the war as a tactic during the conflict. Unlike other countries in the Middle East, Yemen has no rivers to depend on for water resources. In 2017, 250,¬000 people of Taiz's total population of 654,330 were served by public water supply networks. As a result of the ongoing conflict NGO's have struggled to reach the sanitation facilities due to security issues. Since the aerial bombardment, Taiz has been left in a critical situation as the current water production is not sufficient for the population.


Water availability in Yemen has decreased.[398] Water scarcity with an intrinsic geographical formation in highlands and limited capital to build water infrastructures and provision service caused a catastrophic water shortage in Yemen. Aquifer recharge rates are decreasing while salt water intrusion is increasing.[399] After the civil war began in 2015, the water buckets were destroyed significantly and price of water highly increased. Storing water capacity has been demolished by war and supply chains have been occupied by military personnel, which makes the delivery of water far more difficult. In 2015, over 15 million people need healthcare and over 20 million need clean water and sanitation—an increase of 52 percent since the intervention, but the government agencies can not afford to deliver clean water to displaced Yemeni citizens.[400]

Agriculture[edit]

The Yemen civil war resulted in a severe lack of food and vegetation. Agricultural production in the country has suffered substantially leaving Yemen to face the threat of famine. Yemen has been since UNSC resolution 2216 was approved in April 2015,[361] under blockade by land, sea, and air which has disrupted the delivery of many foreign resources to Houthi-controlled territory. In a country where 90% of the food requirements are met through imports, this blockade has had serious consequences concerning the availability of food to its citizens.[401] It is reported that out of the population of 24 million in Yemen, everyday 13 million are going hungry and 6 million are at risk of starvation.[401] In October 2016, Robert Fisk reported that there is strong evidence suggesting that the agricultural sector in Houthi-controlled territory was being deliberately destroyed by the Saudi-led coalition, thus exacerbating the food shortage and leaving the Houthis dependent solely on imports, which are difficult to obtain in view of the blockade.[402]

Archived 16 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine

Demystifying Yemen's Conflict (Midwest Diplomacy)

Yemen and the Huthis: Genesis of the 2015 Crisis (Asian Affairs Journal)

Timeline: Yemen (BBC)

. Vice. 1 October 2015.

As Saudis Block a Human Rights Inquiry in Yemen, America Stays Quiet

. Human Rights Watch. 21 December 2015.

Yemen: Coalition Bombs Homes in Capital

Archived 4 April 2017 at the Wayback Machine. The Nation. November 2016.

The United States May Be Guilty of War Crimes in Yemen

(December 2016), TomDispatch.com

Tomgram: Rebecca Gordon, Yet Another Undeclared U.S. War

Congressional Research Service

Yemen: Civil War and Regional Intervention

. The American Interest. 4 October 2018

Ending the Not-So-Futile War in Yemen

Media related to Yemeni Civil War (2014–present) at Wikimedia Commons