In 1996, Chandler Bing pretended to move to Yemen in an attempt to escape his annoying yet persistent girlfriend Janice. Yemen was a country so-far fetched that not even Janice wanted to follow Chandler there.
Almost 20 years later, Yemen descended into chaos with a civil war not dissimilar to that raging in neighbouring Syria. However, unlike Syria, the rest of the world just stood by and did nothing. Like Janice, the world turned a blind eye; Yemen just wasn’t worth the trouble.
For a long time, Yemen was a strategic port, located at the entrance to the Red Sea; a country made rich by spices and scents. Today, Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world.
Throughout history Yemen has been a country plagued by foreign interference, a country divided, and a country plunged into civil war over and over again. In the 16th century the Ottomans absorbed Yemen into their Empire and 300 years later, the British Empire seized the south of Yemen in 1839. This was a pivotal conquest for Britain, guaranteeing access to the Suez Canal and subsequently connecting Europe with the Middle East, Asia and beyond. The Ottomans returned to the country’s north in the 19th century.
World War One brought an end to the Ottoman Empire and World War Two led to the demise of the British Empire. As a result, the 20th century saw Yemen struggle for independence, with the country divided by Communist and Republican forces. The two Yemen’s reunited in 1990 under Ali Abdallah Saleh, who would go on to rule Yemen for the next 30 years.
But how did Yemen get to civil war?
Historically, the Zaydi branch of Shiite Islam had dominated Yemen. During the 1962-70 civil war, the Zaydi were a powerful force in Yemen’s north. However, following the unification of Yemen, the country’s Shiite population became sidelined to the majority Sunni population. The dominance of Sunni interests led to the establishment of the Houthi movement, a group which promoted themselves as the champions of Yemen’s Shiite Muslim minority.
In 2011 as the Arab Spring uprisings swept through the Arab world, the Houthi movement took advantage of the chaos and gained control of their northern heartland of the Saada province and neighbouring areas. This prompted the resignation of Yemen’s President, Ali Abdallah Saleh and the installation of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.
Many ordinary Yemenis, including members of the Sunni Muslim majority, soon became disillusioned with the new government, and in late 2014 separatist Houthi rebels seized the capital of Sanaa in an attempted coup. Fearing a regional shake-up, neighbouring Saudi Arabia intervened on behalf of the Yemeni government, as the Sunni President Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia. This was the beginning of the Yemen civil war.
Another civil war
Saudi Arabia has long considered itself as the leading Sunni Muslim power, a power that must protect Sunni populations throughout the Middle East from persecution. So, with support from the US, UK, France and nine other Arab states, a Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign to help Yemen’s government maintain large swaths of the country.
The coalition began a bombing campaign and indiscriminate artillery attacks that have largely targeted civilians, hospitals, homes, markets and mosques. In 2018, the coalition bombed a bus filled with children, killing 26 and injuring 19 children.
The complexity of Yemen’s civil war increased. It was no longer just Saudi-backed government forces versus the Houthi rebels. A myriad of forces began to compete for power, as regional players dictate the outcome for millions of civilians. All sides of the conflict have been accused of human rights abuses and war crimes.
So why does no one care about Yemen?
There are three main reasons no one outside the Middle East has any interest in Yemen; oil, money and Iran.
Unlike Syria, there’s no oil in Yemen. There’s nothing to incentivise major powers such as Russia or the US to protect any interests in Yemen, because they don’t have any interests in Yemen. In contrast, Syria had an estimated 2.5 billion barrels of oil reserves in 2018. While these oil reserves seem tiny in comparison Saudi’s 297 billion and Iraq’s 147 billion barrels, Syria has enough oil to make the world pay attention, Russia’s support and America’s interest. The only real difference between the Syrian and Yemeni civil wars is that Syria has oil and Yemen doesn’t showing that oil really does make the world go round.
Many countries are making a lot of money from Yemen’s civil war. Saudi Arabi bought US$21 billion worth of arms from the US. In 2015 alone, the UK sold US$4.2 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia. As you can see in the graph below, the UK’s export licences for Saudi Arabia increased significantly when the full-blown civil war broke out in 2015. Western states are reaping the profits of this war without direct involvement. There is no incentive for the US, the UK or any other countries who are making a lot of money from this war to put a stop to it, therefore, so long as their economies keep benefitting from the civil war in Yemen, the fighting will continue.
Iran plays a large factor as well. If Saudi Arabia is the protector of the Sunni population, Iran is the protector of the Shiite population. The Saudi-backed government has continued to propagate the narrative that the Houthi movement is supported by Iran Shia’s government. Internationally, it has been largely accepted that the Houthi amass most of their arms and equipment on the black market and are financially independent from Iran. Despite the extent of Iran’s involvement in Yemen’s civil war, the West is not going to intervene in a conflict in which its largest regional ally (Saudi Arabia) is keeping down its largest regional adversary (Iran), regardless of the humanitarian disaster that continues.
Beyond oil, money and Iran, there are other reasons the world isn’t paying attention as Yemen enters its sixth year of conflict. The media has gravitated towards other regional conflicts that have a much larger impact on the West in terms of refugees and extremist attacks. There are 2.4 million displaced Yemenites. However, the large majority of these people are displaced internally. At times, Saudi Arabia has established a naval blockade to prevent escape by boat. Escaping through Saudi Arabia itself is hardly appealing. The treacherous mountains that divide Yemen and Oman serve to imprison civilians further. They are trapped in their war-torn country. If these refugees aren’t on Europe’s doorstep, it seems the rest of the world doesn’t care about the conflict.
Yemen hasn’t had a big media moment. A moment that was broadcast across screens throughout the world, that horrified ordinary people and prompted leaders to take action. The image of the Vietnam War’s Napalm Girl or the image of the Syrian boy on the beach. These images forced the world to consider the atrocities that were taking place. Yemen has had no such moment that sells newspapers and makes it to evening broadcasts.
Why we should care
Like Syria, Yemen too is a humanitarian disaster.
Currently, 75 per cent of Yemen’s 24 million people are living below the poverty line. Save the Children reported in November 2018 that 85,000 children have died from malnutrition since the start of the war. One can only imagine with horror what that number is now. The Saudi-led coalition has often closed off all access to the country, barring Yemen from the outside world, from humanitarian assistance. The price of food has doubled since the war broke out with19.3 million people lack access to clean water and sanitation, 20 million people lack access to adequate healthcare.
For now, Saudi officials have called for a ceasefire amid the coronavirus pandemic. In Yemen, the COVID19 pandemic has effectively seen a collapse in their health care system as urgent funding and urgent supplies are in need.
There does not appear to be any rationing of support by any other country so currently the world well and truly does not care about Yemen.
