By: Madeline Hirons
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There is currently an ongoing crisis within Yemen, where the country is divided between groups. The United Nations has attempted to try and solve this issue however, all policies have so far been unsuccessful. The main conflict is between three main groups, those loyal to Hadi, the president, religious minorities and the Houthis. As well as these two groups, there is an extremist religious group also fighting to take control who have pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda who are threatening to control large areas of Yemen. This conflict is seen as a proxy war between Yemen, Saudi and Iran. Iran is backing the religious minority group, Saudi Arabia is backing the president Hadi.
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Millions have been displaced as a result of the situation in Yemen. Thousands of deaths. In 2015, Saudi Arabia got involved by backing the president in power. For some context, in 2012, the Arab Spring occurred. The Arab Spring was the transfer of power in Tunisia when the citizens overthrew the leader in Tunisia. The Arab Spring was influential as it inspired unhappy Yemenis to rise up against the current party/person in power and have their own government. Ali Abdullah Sali’s role of president was given to Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi in 2011. The transfer of power to Hadi resulted in severe economic difficulty such as food problems and unemployment. This resulted in a separatist movement in the south of Yemen. The sides of the war are mainly ideological, those who support the previous president Sali (the Houthis and those loyal to the former president) and those loyal to the new government. 2014 - Houthis took over capital and tried to control the whole country-forcing Hadi out of the country into Saudi Arabia. This led to Saudi and Iran involvement in the conflict. Saudi Arabia started an alliance with other Arab countries and started a military campaign with the Arab countries supplying weapons. Saudi Arabia has the goal of restoring Hadi’s power but has not restored power in the north. Al Qaeda and ISIL have taken advantage of the desperation and were in the south. As well as this there is a severe famine ongoing (17 million affected unless UN steps in) as well as disease and cholera in areas with poor control of sewage and waste. No clean water. All attempts to try and resolve this have failed.
Saudi accuses Iran of backing the rebels.
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