Why Yemen is Dying (and Nobody Cares)

this is the current situation in yemen a situation where no one is in full control of the country and where everyone is at war for their own interests yemen has been caught in a vicious war for more than six years over 230 000 people have died millions are displaced unfortunately the conflict in yemen is very similar to a plot worthy of game of thrones to use the words of the un the worst humanitarian catastrophe is undergoing in yemen the latest u.n report on the conflict claims more than 377 thousand victims and adds that in 2021 for every nine minutes a child under the age of five died as proof save the children reports that a quarter of all civilian casualties between 2018 and 2020 were children the country has been on the brink of famine for years more than 16 million men is living constant need of food and basic necessities that's nearly 65 percent of the national population in comparison that's like 38 million italians out of 59 million had serious difficulties in finding even a single meal a day according to human rights watch 400 000 children under 5 out of a total of 2 million risk dying of malnutrition if assistance is not provided all of this is the product of a war a dirty proxy war a war so far without winners but with only losers [Music] by the government when people say arming the saudi no we signed contract country to country we purchase we pay money it just goes in the uk economy and we enhance our military capabilities no we pay those contracts if uk decide tomorrow to stop selling women to the kingdom we will find another supplier yemen is one of the oldest inhabited places on earth a nation with multifaceted scenic beauty with canyons deserts oasis and endless unspoiled coastlines in place of the semitic origin of its current name the ancient romans referred to the southernmost regions of the arabian peninsula as arabia felix happy arabia an area rich in spices incense and a trading hub with africa and india considering what's happening in yemen today that felix is a surreal the strait of babel mandeb is a strategic point for all the trades connecting the red sea and therefore the mediterranean with india and southeast asia and aiden is the city that for centuries has been the checkpoint to access the strait the first europeans to understand this were the british to the extent that in 1839 the southern territories of present-day yemen entered the orbit of the united kingdom the port of aden was occupied and turned into a colony while the north of the country remained under ottoman rule which had been persistent for over 300 years when the turkish empire collapsed following the first world war the north became an independent kingdom for about 50 years yemen was split into a more populated north with its capital cena and an almost completely uninhabited south except for the strategic coasts under british jurisdiction in 1962 a group of nationalist soldiers supported by the egyptian president nasser carried out a coup d'etat in the north market they occupied the capital senem and forced the king muhammad al-badr to abdicate this led to the proclamation of the arab republic of yemen this episode triggered a first civil war that would last until 1970. in this conflict regional powers didn't stand idle egypt ended up supporting the new republican government while syria and saudi arabia sided with a monarchy for a full 80 years yemen experienced a long painful taste of what civil war meant the conflict ended in 1970 when with a disastrous egyptian retreat the yemeni royal family was finally forced to surrender and admit the recognition of the northern republic in the south instead the british had already withdrawn since 1977 due to the pressure exerted by insurrectionist groups supported by nasser's egypt the europeans left the control of aden to a new sovereign state the people's democratic republic of south yemen a nation with a marxist-inspired regime the only one of its kind in the arabian peninsula the pro-marxist faction was a factor of isolation it was viewed with suspicion by the monarchies of the region after all yemen is still today the only republic in the area the arab monarchies feared the expansion of other revolutionary movements the cold war then added fuel to the tensions a bit like the korean peninsula in germany yemen was also divided in two the south being socialist and per soviet didn't fit the political model of the northern part and the two short wars between north and south showed that yemen's politics hadn't yet come to terms with its past in 78 there was a plot twist in the north a colonel of the armed forces ali abdullah saleh of zaidi shihid origin came to power and was destined to remain in charge for over 30 years using the gcp the general congress of the people more than a traditional political party salah quickly became the father of the nation to pay the costs of the dictatorship were a dissonance but most of all the so-called marginalized the alakdam almost 13 of the yemeni population yemen is in fact still today a strongly hierarchical nation with very rigid castes at the top there are the most fortunate the saddam the members of the islamic religious elites the act them are comparable to real slaves discriminated outcasts of society to whom are left the most degrading and demeaning jobs a yemeni saying describes them in these words if your plate is touched by a dog clean it if it's touched by an akdam break it it is in this broken society that in 1990 during the years of the collapse of the soviet union the unification of the two states took place again under the leadership of the immovable celeb the however was perceived from the beginning by the south for what it was an unwanted annuation through a manipulation of the electoral system that rewarded the most densely populated regions there is those of the north the yemenis of the south were immediately ousted from the government from public jobs from the army from the redistribution of land and from the energy sector and this despite the fact that about 80 percent of the oil and gas fields were located in the south all of this explains why in 1994 there was an attempt coup by marxist military and politicians the attempt coup was unsuccessful but this oppression led by the north only served to worsen the situation in the early 90s in the northwestern region between seda and the capital sena an organization was formed originally it was more of a religious sect founded by the cleric hussein ahuti being assailed shihid hussein was very close ideologically and politically to iran and had very good relations with its supreme leader ali khamenei he also had very good connections with the other shyite realities in the middle east like the lebanese hezbollah hussein's movement was initially called the believing youth and only after the radicalization following the harshest relations with the central government the group took the name of ansar allah literally the champions of god also known as the houthi clashes between saleh forces and ansar allah erupted in 2004. the houthi accused the slayer of extreme corruption of being unable to maintain the multi-party system of the republic and of high treason towards the yemen its people natalie for having opened up to relations with the saudis who have always been considered the foreigners and invaders but also for having turned to western governments sales hard fist did the rest many yemenis in the north supported the ideas backed by the houthis the inefficiency of the government and the fear of becoming a province in the hands of saudi arabia the traditional cradle of islamic wahhabism was a great incentive for the recruitment of new members of ansar allah not coincidentally the zhadi shaite minority in yemen is concentrated in the northwest the territory that's still in the hands of the houthis and that for decades has undergone a process of sunilization by the religious majority in the country even though not all zaidi are houthis and not all houthis are zaidi in the wake of the alleged arab spring the long reign of yemen's master father came to an end on february 27 salah resigned handing over to his deputy abdrabhi mansur hadi hadi tried to reach an agreement with the houthis promising to give them more political weight and dividing the country into six federal regions the houthis however declared themselves dissatisfied with the proposals and irritated by the government's announced decisions to cut subsidies in january 2015 they carried out a coup d'etat led by general abdullahfiz al-sakov calling for hadi's resignation in addition to this the general economic and social crisis of the country already then the poorest in the arab world were causing serious problems such as unemployment and skyrocketing inflation in a surprising twist the houthis came back to whom you don't expect saleh the houthis wanted political legitimacy and saleh without a presidency anymore was willing to grant it in order to get new prominence celeste still had military personnel loyal to him and therefore sent them to support the rebel offensive despite the support of foreign allies such as the saudis the emiratis and the americans hadi was forced to resign and to leave power to the interim president of the parliament a figure considered close to the former president saleh this time too the new government wasn't recognized by the houthis who in february of the same year declared a parliament this halt transferred power to a revolutionary committee and from the north took over the capital cena this move forced hardy to make a daring escape and he had no choice but to take refuge in his native city aiden in the new institutional headquarters hardy declared on state television to be the only legitimate president of yemen and he disavowed the coup of the houthis and proclaimed aidan as the transitional capital in turn the leader of the shiites abdul malikal huthi speaking on television publicly declared his commitment against islamic terrorists including not only members of al-qaeda but also had his men but in the meantime hadi had to take refuge in riyadh the capital of saudi arabia where he still lives the houthis actually managed to enter aden at the beginning of april 2015 but the city was taken back by the loyalists in the summer of the same year at that point the saudis were really upset i began wondering if we don't do something now in yemen we're gonna be in big trouble aside from the official explanation that is that of defending an internationally recognized government the real motivations for the saudi intervention in yemen were many saudi arabia was sharing a border of thousands of kilometers with a nation on the brink of civil war a nation where those in danger of coming to power were shiite clans allied with iran and a yemen in houthi hands would have meant ruin for the saudis total isolation the blockade of the strait of hormuz would have been followed by that of babel mondeb and with it goodbye to the billions of barrels exported to the rest of the world no exports no petrodollars no money no power and so the nightmare of saudi arabia impoverished as a yemen 2.0 could become reality this scenario was enough for the crown prince bin salman to financially isolate yemen and move the army in the northwestern territories saudi arabia didn't have a mandate from the u.n security council as a result many including human rights watch itself judged their attack as something illegal and indiscriminate amnesty international itself in 2018 titled the united states shouldn't take part in war crimes in yemen the reference was not only to arm sails but also to sending mercenaries through the private military company academy formerly known as blackwater the military intervention of the saudis and emiratis took place mainly through the air force which bombed several times sanae and other urban centers with the aim of blocking the advance of the houthis in the territory according to this chart provided by the yemen data project the peak of coalitionaire assaults was reached in october 2015 with more than 900 bombings in 30 days 24 600 raids in total since 2015 with an average of 10 per day so the attacks have often been non-selective according to the yemen data project a third of saudi bombings have hit non-military areas including hospitals schools and residential areas as well as funerals and weddings a clear violation of international humanitarian law beyond the official statements since the very beginning the civil war in yemen has been a proxy war between the sunni arab front close to the government of hadi and the shiite block supported by iran it's basically a battleground between the two traditional enemies of the middle east the alliance that the houthis weaved with saleh lasted until 2017. saleh offered to end the offensive if riyadh and abu dhabi promised to lift the embargo and seize the military operations the houthis didn't take it well so much so that not even two days after the conference solaire was killed by a sniper while fleeing the capital complicating this picture was the other major unknown factor in the territory akp cells the al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula formed in 2009 from yemeni and saudi branches akp took advantage of the cahoes and protests to spread in the large province of other mouths in death of marib and in some coastal areas carrying out attacks against civilians and non-civilian targets at this moment however akp's action has been strongly buffered by the offensive carried out with us weapons and drones one of which neutralized in 2015 the founding head of the organization nasir al-wayashi has reportedly killed al qaeda propaganda chief in a drone strike in yemen as a result akp cells are no longer in stable possession of any part of yemen the counter-terrorist action has seen the collaboration of the us and uae the latter allied for the occasion with israel in march 2017 as part of the fight against islamic terrorism the u.s president donald trump authorized more than 20 bombings on yemeni al-qaeda positions and in 2021 the same trump administration included the houthi in the list of international terrorist organizations in 2016 for the record saudi arabia had also been included by the u.n in the least containing the state's guilty of war crimes against children but in june 2020 its position was removed after the u.n secretary general antonio guterres verified that the saudis had implemented all measures to protect civilians from bombing however criticism was widespread because according to some the un had ignored some of the issues for instance the netherlands attempted to submit to the u.n an international investigation into human rights violation and war crimes in yemen however as reported by middle east eye under pressure from saudi arabia the us and uk amsterdam had to withdraw the request the dutch were motivated by sensible reasons the list of war crimes and actions against civilians is long and appalling in many reports issued by international organizations numerous violations of war conventions are documented starting from the use of prohibited weapons like cluster bombs it is estimated that since the start of the war there have been more than 26 000 bombings many of which were carried out by the saudis in the mistaken belief that they would quickly resolve the conflict with a sword of blitzkrieg the saudi crown prince mohammad bin salman is said to have expressed himself in these terms speaking in 2015 with the dense cia director john brennan but as always it is the innocent who paid the heaviest price sixty percent of the children can no longer go to school simply because almost all the educational institutions are in ruins while the west far from stopping this carnage has profited from the sale of weapons with american drones or weapons from the british and also as italians as stated in the report death by drone from the humanitarian information portal relief web the statement made by former u.s president barack obama in 2013 according to which military drones would be used only with the near certainty of not hitting civilian targets is clearly questioned as pointed out denying case studies documented in this report provide credible evidence of a drone strike involving 12 people including a pregnant woman but even the other side of the coin is not saved from this disgrace who supplies ansar allah the answer is rhetorical the shiite front in iran is the prime suspect iran has always claimed to support the houthi politically while denying sending weapons or drones however the seizure of ships in the indian ocean sailing under the iranian flag and containing an indefinite number of weapons and ammunition proves the contrary needless to say even the houthis haven't spared themselves with war crimes this is witnessed by the killing of 22 civilians with katusa rockets launched against markets and residential areas in the center of the east or as reported by human rights watch by the recruitment of child soldiers and the prohibited use of landmines iran sees the rebels in yemen as an axis of resistance against israel and the united states yet according to some analysts interviewed by al jazeera unlike other proxies in iran and syria the houthis do not take orders from the iranians they welcome their support but they are not their dependents and speaking of sending weapons there has been no shortage of complaints to major gun companies as far as my country is concerned the observatory diriti found that in the first half of 2020 the italian government sent arms to the saudis and the miratis including pistols and semi-automatic rifles for a value of 5.3 million euros not counting the bombs and one could say the same about so many other western nations but let's go back to the conflict for a moment in april 2017 the first fracture became evident within the loyalist front led by hadi while remaining faithful to the alliance against the rebels the southern governorate raids close to the united arab emirates gave life to a sort of autonomous government the transitional council of the south distinct from that of a hardy and with a real government in aden aimed at taking the place of the legitimate one of sana in any case these internal contrasts had no influence on the ongoing conflict while reaching an agreement on a ceasefire the fighting never stopped partly because of new tensions between the us and iran over the nuclear matter according to the terms of the jcpoa no nuclear developed in iran no sanctions by the west to renegotiate the agreements washington asked tehran to withdraw its support to the houthis something it didn't do this reignited the fightings another key event was when in 2019 the emirates matured their decisions to withdraw from the theater of war the emirates certainly realized that the war was detrimental to their own reputation they quickly noticed the difficulties encountered by the saudis in the mountains of northern yemen and they learned their lesson soon in addition their objectives differed from the saudis if the purpose of riyadh was to reassert by force its role as a regional power and restore an order that favored saudi arabia and yemen the emiratis pursued more the objective of controlling only a few strategic areas which they achieved thanks to a dense network of local alliances they managed to get an access to ports and coastal areas such as the port of aden and a series of minor ports important for the control of hydrocarbon traffic such as al-mukhola al-sir rudum balhaf nishtun and al-gaida to which are added the islands of socotra and barim which we have already mentioned in this video the emiratis have implemented a more shrewd long-term vision chinese style to put it another way they have left the dirty work to the saudis and have chosen another path to win their own war establishing commercial bases and acquiring new positions where the objectives to be pursued the british empire mentality precisely that empire from which the emirates obtained independence in 1971 to the emiratis the price of participating in the conflict far exceeded the benefits and so it was better to withdraw from what some have defined as the saudi vietnam to date according to the words of the american special envoy tim lander king after these seven years all parties have probably matured the awareness of the impossibility of a military victory in fact the recent attempt of the houthis to advance in the marib region rich in natural resources such as gas and oil has been completely blocked by government forces and the drone attacks against the capital riyadh against the city of jeddah and against the aramco plans during the formula one world championship as well as those against the emirates airport of abu dhabi have not had any significant result moreover the internal situation in the two parts of yemen is far from peaceful the houthi-controlled north is characterized by a highly centralized regime that is repressive towards any form of descent and is creating several incidents such as the raid on the us embassy in sana in november 2021 where the employees taken half stage where yemen is and not americans and things are certainly no better for the loyalist government in the south which continues to have problems with the secessionist transitional council which controls the strategic archipelago of social but has to face in turn the protests of the population exhausted by years of suffering and deprivation no electricity no drinking water and therefore a cholera epidemic no fuel for cars unreachable food prices for ordinary citizens some of whom according to al jazeera has literally sold their kidneys at the price of five ten thousand dollars to get by organs that are then resold to wealthy clients in other golf countries at the price of one hundred thousand dollars the uncertain future is also given by the current president at the age of 77 hud is not enjoying good health and at the beginning of april 2022 he left power to the presidential council in the hope of launching a new phase of transition this phase was welcomed by the saudis and emiratis who have announced new financial aid for reconstruction pacifying the area is of fundamental importance first of all it would partially restore the security of traffic in the red sea let's just think about the already mentioned strait of bobby mondeb from which approximately eight percent of the world's oil supplies transit or just think about the possibility of new foreign fighters that may take advantage of the conflict to create new terrorist cells if other reason in favor of peace if ever there was a need could come from the cooling relations between the gulf states due to ukrainian and syrian wars the two absolute monarchies in fact do not wish to adhere to sanctions against russia and increase their production of crude oil to compensate for the lack of supplies for moscow not to mention that the saudis have shown interest in the possibility of accepting the un instead of the dollar for sales of crude oil to the chinese but ending the war without perhaps the greatest benefit of all ending an unparalleled catastrophe after seven years of a forgotten war rarely mentioned by our media saudi arabia and the pro-government coalition have never suffered any sanction despite the repeating bombing of civilian victims and in fact the creation of humanitarian corridors has never been allowed as well as the current war in ethiopia in tigray the yemeni one is a very sad example of the so-called double standard the atracious symbol of the conflict was amal hussein the seven-year-old yemeni girl who died of starvation in a refugee camp in 2018 just a week after her photograph went viral and unfortunately in seven years the un hasn't been able to find the right strategy to put an end to the massacre on march 25 the globalist reported at the moment the international community has allocated only 30 percent what the united nation has called for to respond to the emergency in 2022 an average of just 15 cents per day per individual inhabitant it's actually estimated that more than half of yemenis survive on humanitarian aid alone further worsening the situation of yemenis was the crisis in ukraine given that about 32 percent of wheat imports came from ukraine the conflict has practically blocked imports leading to an increase in prices starting with the bread according to undp in 2022 if the conflict didn't stop yemen would not only confirm itself as a failed state like libya or somalia but would also become the poorest state on the planet worse than afghanistan and this despite the presence of rich deposits of exploitable oil and a strategic position for commercial traffic made even more interesting after the scenarios opened by the crisis in ukraine all of this would offer important prospects for development for the country and its people provided of course that peace is achieved but to do this one should need greater media coverage it's clear that in this war silence serves only to those who profit from the conflict paulo pizza the policy advisor for humanitarian emergencies ethos from italy commenting on the conflict in yemen spoke of an international shame adding that what continues to happen in yemen in the silence of major international decision makers is a disgrace that erodes the very sense of humanity in latin there is a malta peraspera adastra through our ships to the stars that's where i wish for yemen you

Channel: Nova Lectio International

Views: 1,103,146

Keywords: Yemen War, Yemen, Sanaa'a, Houthis, iran, saudi arabia, uae, united arab emirates, bombing, Hadi, qatar, Saleh, geopolitics, nova lectio, nova lectio international, history yemen, history, socotra, arabian peninsula, bab el mandeb strait, somalia, eritrea, united states, italy

Id: a_baD-Y8GP4

Length: 28min 17sec (1697 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 14 2022