XPost: alt.anti-war, alt.politics.religion
YEMEN: THE FORGOTTEN WAR
Over the past three years the world has turned its back on a growing
crisis
ARMED CONFLICT
A spiralling conflict
Source:
https://t.co/DlRjtqobZV
On 25 March 2015, an international coalition led by Saudi Arabia
launched air strikes against the Huthi armed group in Yemen sparking a full-blown armed conflict.
Over the following three years, the conflict in Yemen is showing no
real signs of abating. Horrific human rights abuses, as well as war
crimes, are being committed throughout the country by all parties to
the conflict, causing unbearable suffering for civilians.
While coalition forces relentlessly bomb from the air, rival factions
are fighting a battle on the ground. On one side are the Huthis, a
Yemeni armed group whose members belong to a branch of Shi’a Islam
known as Zaidism. On the other side are anti-Huthi forces that are
allied with the current President of Yemen, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and
the Saudi Arabia-led coalition.
Civilians are trapped in the middle – more than 15,000 of them have
been killed and injured and a humanitarian crisis has spiralled.
For three years much of the world has ignored this raging conflict and
heard little about its devastating consequences.
Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi elected as president initiating a two-year
transitional period. However, government forces continue to commit
human rights violations, including unlawful killings and enforced disappearances, against supporters of secession in the south and a
conflict with the Huthi armed group in the north is renewed.
Clashes between pro and anti Huthis escalate.
After President Hadi appeals to Gulf and Arab states to intervene
militarily, Saudi Arabian-led military coalition launches air strikes
against the Huthi armed group positions in Sana’a and Sa’da. President
Hadi flees to Saudi Arabia. Over the next six months the conflict
spreads across Yemen.
The conflict continues to rage throughout the year. In April
UN-sponsored peace talks begin in Kuwait but breakdown in early
August. On 8 October, a Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrike kills
more than 100 people attending a funeral gathering in Sana’a and
injures more than 500 others – one of the largest death tolls in any
single incident since the start of the coalition’s bombing campaign.
Between 2015 and 2016, the US and UK governments have together
transferred more than US $5 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia
which is leading the military coalition in Yemen.
Throughout 2017, Yemeni civilians continue to suffer at the hands of
all parties to the conflict. The Saudi Arabia-led coalition tightened
its partial sea and air blockade on Yemen in November 2017, which
deepened the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict. As a result
of violations by all parties, civilian lives have been devastated by indiscriminate bombing and shelling, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances and a spiralling humanitarian crisis three years into
the conflict.
THE ORIGINS OF THE CONFLICT EXPLAINED
Civilians bear the brunt of the violence in Yemen. As well as causing
the deaths and injuries of thousands of civilians, the conflict has
exacerbated an already severe humanitarian crisis. This crisis is
man-made, with the war deepening and exacerbating the humanitarian
situation, and all sides impeding the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Approximately 22.2 million Yemenis today rely on humanitarian
assistance in order to survive. In order to deny supplies to the Huthi
forces, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition imposed a partial aerial and
naval blockade. After Huthi forces launched a missile unlawfully
targeting civilian areas in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh in late
November, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition unlawfully tightened its sea
and air blockade on Yemen. Despite the blockade being loosened since
then, the coalition continues to impose restrictions on aid and
commercial imports of essential goods, including food, medicine and
fuel.
Humanitarian workers also report that the Huthis have excessively
restricted the movement of goods and staff, forcing some of their aid programmes to close.
HUMAN TOLL OF THE CONFLICT
5,900+ civilians killed during the conflict,
9,400+ civilians injured
3 MILLION people forced from their homes by the fighting
22.2 MILLION people in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance
including food, water, shelter, fuel and sanitation.
See the full story here: <
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/09/yemen-the-forgotten-war/>
--
Steve Hayes
http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
http://khanya.wordpress.com
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