The Ethiopian migrants crossing Yemen's war to find a better life global gateways
2019[edit]
On January 8, 2019, the Council on Foreign Relations listed this conflict as a conflict to watch during 2019.[365] Similarly, the Italian Institute for International Political Studies also claimed it to be a conflict to watch in 2019.[366]
Sporadic exchanges of fire and other ceasefire violations have been reported between Houthi forces and coalition troops around Hudaydah in January.[367]
Humanitarian situation[edit]
CNN reported on 8 April 2015 that almost 10,160,000 Yemenis were deprived of water, food, and electricity as a result of the conflict. The report also added per sources from UNICEF officials in Yemen that within 15 days, some 100,000 people across the country were dislocated, while Oxfam said that more than 10 million Yemenis did not have enough food to eat, in addition to 850,000 half-starved children. Over 13 million civilians were without access to clean water.[368]
A medical aid boat brought 2.5 tonnes of medicine to Aden on 8 April 2015.[369] A UNICEF plane loaded with 16 tonnes of supplies landed in Sana'a on 10 April.[370] The United Nations announced on 19 April 2015 that Saudi Arabia promised to provide $273.7 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Yemen. The UN appealed for the aid, saying 7.5 million people had been affected by the conflict and many were in need of medical supplies, potable water, food, shelter, and other forms of support.[371]
On 12 May 2015, Oxfam warned that the five days a humanitarian ceasefire was scheduled to last would not be sufficient to fully address Yemen's humanitarian crisis.[281] It has also been said that the Houthis are collecting a war tax on goods. The political analyst Abdulghani al-Iryani affirmed that this tax is: "an illegal levy, mostly extortion that is not determined by law and the amount is at the discretion of the field commanders".[372]
As the war dragged on through the summer and into the fall, things were made far worse when Cyclone Chapala, the equivalent of a category 2 Hurricane,[373] made landfall on 3 November 2015. According to the NGO Save the Children, the destruction of healthcare facilities and a healthcare system on the brink of collapse as a result of the war will cause an estimated 10,000 preventable child deaths annually. Some 1,219 children have died as a direct result of the conflict thus far. Edward Santiago, the NGO's Yemen director, asserted in December 2016:[374]
On March 2017, the World Food Program reported that while Yemen was not yet in a full-blown famine, 60% of Yemenis, or 17 million people, were in "crisis" or "emergency" food situations.[375]
In June 2017 a cholera epidemic resurfaced which was reported to be killing a person an hour in Yemen by mid June.[376]News reports in mid June stated that there had been 124,000 cases and 900 deaths and that 20 of the 22 provinces in Yemen were affected at that time.[377] UNICEF and WHO estimated that, by 24 June 2017, the total cases in the country exceeded 200,000, with 1,300 deaths.[378]
On 7 June 2018, it was reported that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had pulled 71 of its international staff out of Yemen, and moved the rest of them to Djibouti, with some 450 ICRC employees remaining in the country. The partial evacuation measure came on the eve of an ICRC worker, a Lebanese national, being killed on 21 April by unknown gunmen in the southwestern city of Taiz. The ICRC stated "our current activities have been blocked, threatened and directly targeted in recent weeks, and we see a vigorous attempt to instrumentalise our organisation as a pawn in the conflict." In light of the serious security deterioration for ICRC personnel, the international organisation has called for all parties of the conflict "to provide it with concrete, solid and actionable guarantees so that it can continue working in Yemen." Since the beginning of the conflict, more than 10,000 people have been killed and at least 40,000 wounded, mostly from air raids.[379]
The International Rescue Committee stated in March that at least 9.8 million people in Yemen were acutely in need of health services. The closure of Sana'a and Riyan airports for civilian flights and the limited operation of civilian airplanes in government-held areas, made it impossible for most to seek medical treatment abroad.The cost of tickets provided by Yemenia, Air Djibouti and Queen Bilqis Airways, also put traveling outside Yemen out of reach for many.[380][381]
War crime accusations[edit]
According to Farea Al-Muslim, direct war crimes have been committed during the conflict; for example, an IDP camp was hit by a Saudi airstrike, while Houthis have sometimes prevented aid workers from giving aid.[382] The UN and several major human rights groups discussed the possibility that war crimes may have been committed by Saudi Arabia during the air campaign.[383]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote that the Saudi-led air campaign that began on 26 March 2015, had "conducted airstrikes in apparent violation of the laws of war, such as the March 30 attack on a displaced persons camp in Mazraq, northern Yemen, that struck a medical facility and a market". HRW also said that the Houthis had "unlawfully deployed forces in densely populated areas and used excessive force against peaceful protesters and journalists". In addition, HRW said that by providing logistical and intelligence assistance to coalition forces, "the United States may have become a party to the conflict, creating obligations under the laws of war".[384] Other incidents noted by HRW that had been deemed as "indiscriminate or disproportionate" or "in violation of the laws of war" were: a strike on a dairy factory outside the Red Sea port of Hodaida (31 civilian deaths);[385] a strike that destroyed a humanitarian aid warehouse of the international aid organization Oxfam in Saada;[386] the Saudi Arabia-led coalition's blockade of Yemen which kept out fuel desperately needed for the Yemeni population's survival.[387]
Amnesty International said that several Saudi Arabian–led airstrikes, documented by it, hit five densely populated areas (Sa'dah, Sana'a, Hodeidah, Hajjah and Ibb), and "raise concerns about compliance with the rules of international humanitarian law".[388][389] Amnesty International added, that according to its research, at least 139 people, including at least 97 civilians (33 of whom were children) were killed during these strikes, and 460 individuals were injured (at least 157 whom are civilians).[388] HRW also said that pro-Houthi fighters may have committed war crimes when two women were killed in Yemen and aid workers were arrested for two weeks.[390]
U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, Johannes van der Klaauw, said that air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition on Sa'ada city in Yemen, where many civilians were trapped, were in breach of international humanitarian law, despite calls for civilians to leave the area. Scores of civilians were reportedly killed and thousands forced to flee their homes after the Saudi-led coalition declared the entire governorate a military target, he said.[391][392] Van der Klaauw also said that coalition strikes had targeted schools and hospitals, in breach of international law,[393]
A group of 17 aid agencies working in Yemen condemned the growing intensity of airstrikes in the north of Yemen on 8 and 9 May 2015. Save the Children's Country Director in Yemen, Edward Santiago, said that the "indiscriminate attacks after the dropping of leaflets urging civilians to leave Sa'ada raises concerns about the possible pattern being established in breach of International Humanitarian Law".[394]Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has claimed that Houthi militias in alliance with the militants of exiled former president Ali Abdullah Saleh killed purposely at least 22 civilians in Taiz. According to eyewitnesses, the militants launched Katyusha rockets targeting the markets and residential neighbourhoods in the center of Taiz. As a result, many civilians were killed and wounded. On the other hand, local media belonging to Houthi militias have denied such accusation, accusing Saudi and ISIS for committing these attacks.[395]
In December 2015, HRW claimed that six "unlawful airstrikes" were carried out in the capital by the Saudi-led coalition in September and October, which killed 60 civilians. They also criticized the United States, a party to the conflict, for refusing to investigate the attacks.[396] In January 2016, local sources in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a reported that a Saudi-led coalition airstrike targeted the Noor Center for the Blind.[397] On 8 October 2016, a Saudi-led airstrike on a funeral ceremony that killed roughly 100 people and injured 500, including children. HRW is calling the attack an apparent war crime.[398]
In November 2017, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy accused the United States of complicity in war crimes and the humanitarian crisis on the Senate floor, stating "there is a humanitarian catastrophe inside this country – that very few people in this nation can locate on a map – of absolutely epic proportion. This humanitarian catastrophe – this famine … is caused, in part, by the actions of the United States of America."[399] In August 2018 the headline of article on Foreign Policy magazine was "America in committing war crimes in Yemen and it doesn't even know why."[400] British researcher Alex de Waal has found that the responsibility for Yemen's humanitarian crisis goes beyond Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to London and Washington. Britain has sold at least £4.5 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia and £500 million to the UAE since the war began. The US role is even bigger: Trump authorised arms sales to the Saudis worth $110 billion last May. Yemen will be the defining famine crime of this generation, perhaps this century."[401] In July 2017, and after a challenge mounted by human rights campaigners against ministers who the campaingners accused of "acting illegally by not suspending weapons sales" to Saudi Arabia, the UK High Court ruled that the government arms sales were lawful."[402]
On 28 August 2018, at a Pentagon news conference in Washington, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that the US would continue to support the Saudi-led coalition. In spite of a commitment by Saudi that "everything humanly possible" would be done and no damage to innocent lives would be caused, the increased civilian casualties in Yemen war remain unexplained.[403] UN's first report after the coalition claims this to be the world's worst humanitarian crisis, where more than 10,000 have been killed. The report also claims that the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, may be responsible for war crimes, such as rape, torture and use of child soldiers.[404]
Refugees[edit]
Djibouti, a small country in the Horn of Africa across the Bab-el-Mandeb strait from Yemen, has received an influx of refugees since the start of the campaign.[193][405][406] Refugees also fled from Yemen to Somalia, arriving by sea in Somaliland and Puntland starting 28 March.[407][408] On 16 April 2015, 2,695 refugees of 48 nationalities were reported to have fled to Omanin the past two weeks.[409]
According to Asyam Hafizh, an Indonesian student who was studying in Yemen, Al-Qaeda of Yemen has rescued at least 89 Indonesian civilians which trapped in the conflict. Later on he arrived in Indonesia and he told his story to local Media.[410]United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported in August 2015 that a total of almost 100,000 people fled Yemen, especially to regional countries, like Saudi Arabia and Djibouti.[411] In September 2016, UNHCR estimated displacement of 2.4 million Yemenis within the country and 120,000 seeking asylum.[412]
Evacuation of foreign nationals from Yemen[edit]
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The Royal Saudi Navy evacuated diplomats and United Nations staff from Aden to Jeddah on 28 March 2015.[413]
Pakistan dispatched two special PIA flights to evacuate some 500 stranded Pakistanis on 29 March 2015.[414] Several UN staff members and Arab diplomats were also evacuated following the airstrikes.[415]
The Indian government responded by deploying ships and planes to Yemen to evacuate stranded Indians. India began evacuating its citizens on 2 April by sea.[416]An air evacuation of Indian nationals from Sana'a to Djibouti started on 3 April, after the Indian government obtained permission to land two Airbus A320s at the airport.[417] The Indian Armed Forces carried out rescue operation codenamed Operation Raahat and evacuated more than 4640 overseas Indians in Yemen along with 960 foreign nationals of 41 countries.[418] The air evacuation ended on 9 April 2015 while the evacuation by sea ended on 11 April 2015.[419] The United States has assets in the region, but through its Yemen diplomatic mission website, instructed its citizens to evacuate using Indian assistance.[420]
A Chinese missile frigate docked in Aden on 29 March to evacuate Chinese nationals from Yemen.[421] The ship reportedly deployed soldiers ashore on 2 April to guard the evacuation of civilians from the city.[422] Hundreds of Chinese and other foreign nationals were safely evacuated aboard the frigate in the first operation of its kind carried out by the Chinese military.[423] The Philippines have announced that 240 Filipinos were evacuated across the Saudi border to Jizan, before boarding flights to Riyadh and then to Manila.[424]
The Malaysian government have deployed two Royal Malaysian Air Force C-130 aircraft to evacuate their citizens.[425] On 15 April, around 600 people have been evacuated by Malaysia which also comprising other Southeast Asian countries citizens such as 85 Indonesians, 9 Cambodians, 3 Thais and 2 Vietnamese.[426] The Indonesian Air Force also sent a Boeing 737-400and a chartered aircraft to evacuate Indonesian citizens.[427]
The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry said it would airlift its citizens out of Yemen if they requested to be evacuated.[428] There were reportedly more than 50,000 Ethiopian nationals living and working in Yemen at the outbreak of hostilities.[429] More than 3,000 Ethiopians registered to evacuate from Yemen, and as of 17 April, the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry had confirmed 200 evacuees to date.[430]
Throughout April, Russian military forces evacuated more than 1,000 people of various nationalities, including Russian citizens, to the Chkalovsky Airport, a military air base.[431]
Impact on citizens[edit]
Children and women[edit]
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Yemeni refugee female and children are extremely susceptible to smuggling and human trafficking.[432] NGOs report that vulnerable populations in Yemen were at increased risk for human trafficking in 2015 because of ongoing armed conflict, civil unrest, and lawlessness. Migrant workers from the Somalia who remained in Yemen during this period suffered from increased violence, and women and children became most vulnerable to human trafficking. Prostitution on women and child sex workers is social issue in Yemen. Citizens of other gulf states are beginning to be drawn into the sex tourism industry. The poorest people in Yemen work locally and children are commonly sold as sex slaves abroad. While this issue is worsening, the plight of Somali's in Yemen has been ignored by the government.[433] Children are recruited between the ages of 13 and 17, and as young as 10 years old into armed forces despite a law against it in 1991. The rate of militant recruitment in Yemen increases exponentially. According to an international organization, between 26 March and 24 April 2015, armed groups recruited at least 140 children.[434] According to the New York Times report, 1.8 million children in Yemen are extremely subject to malnutrition in 2018.[435]
Both the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis were blacklisted by the UN over the deaths of children during the war. In 2016 Saudi Arabia was removed from the list after alleged pressure from Gulf countries who threatened to withdraw hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance to the UN, the decision was criticized by Human rights groups and the coalition added again in 2017 and was accused of killing or injuring 683 children, and attacking many of schools and hospitals in 38 confirmed attacks, while the Houthis were accused of being responsible for 414 child casualties in 2016.[436][437][438]
Education[edit]
The civil war in Yemen severely impacted and degraded the country's education system. The number of children who are out of school increased to 1.8 million in 2015–2016 out of more than 5 million registered students according to the 2013 statistics released by the Ministry of Education.[439] Moreover, 3600 schools are directly affected; 68 schools are occupied by armed groups, 248 schools have severe structural damage, and 270 are used to house refugees. The Yemen government has not been able to improve this situation due to limited authority and manpower. Some of the education system's problems include: not enough financial resources to operate schools and salaries of the teachers, not enough materials to reconstruct damaged schools, and lack of machinery to print textbooks and provide school supplies. These are caused by the unstable government that cannot offer enough financial support since many schools are either damaged or used for other purposes. Due to warfare and destruction of schools, the education ministry, fortunately, was able to send teams to oversee primary and secondary schools' final exam in order to give students 15-16 school year certificates.[439] Currently, the UNICEF is raising money to support students and fix schools damaged by armed conflicts.
Residential condition[edit]
The Yemeni quality of life is affected by the civil war and people have suffered enormous hardships. Although mines are banned by the government, the Houthi forces have placed anti-personnel mines in many parts of Yemen including Aden.[440]Thousands of civilians are injured when they accidentally step on mines; many lose their legs and injure their eyes. It is estimated that more than half a million mines have been laid by the rebels during the conflict. The Yemen army was able to remove 300,000 mines planted by the Houthi militia in liberated areas, including 40,000 mines on the outskirts of Maribprovince, according to official sources.[441] In addition, the nine-country coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched many airstrikes against the Houthi forces; between 2015 and 2016 more than 1920 civilians have been killed and much of the civilian infrastructure for goods and food production, storage, and distribution has been destroyed.[442] Factories have ceased production and thousands of people have lost their jobs. Due to decreased production, food, medicines, and other consumer staples have become scarce. The prices of these goods have gone up and civilians can no longer afford them for sustenance.
United Nations response[edit]
The United Nations representative Baroness Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said on 2 April 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.[443]
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.[444] However, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United Nations questioned whether humanitarian pauses would be the best way of delivering humanitarian assistance.[445]
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 quit Sana'a and other areas they seized.[446] The Houthis condemned the UN resolution and called for mass protests.[447]
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.[448] 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.[449] 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 Houthi Rebels for torturing civilians in the Yemeni conflict.[450]
In December 2018, UN-sponsored talks between the rebels and the Saudi-backed government are expected to start. The UN has also started using its jets to carry wounded Houthi rebels out of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, for Oman, paving the way for planned peace talks after nearly four years of civil war.[451]
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