I first read about Yemen’s humanitarian crisis a few years ago, but due to the little media coverage and my own lack of awareness of its gravity, I simply forgot about the situation all together. With no intended malice, I used my privilege of wilful blindness to erase Yemen from my mind. This was until recently where the extent of Yemen’s vulnerability has sparked concern and attention in some, who have taken to social media to inform others. You would have seen clips, pictures and descriptions of Yemen and its people. The heart of ancient Arabia reduced to rubble and debris, flooding the grainy earth. Pale, ashen bricks lay in mounds, to which children stand, wrapped in scarves and sheets, overlooking what was once their home. Now, an empty carcass of cement. A country where 80% of the population, 24 million people, require humanitarian aid to survive. Nearly every single Yemeni child is in dire need of help.
How did this happen? Why is there national silence? What can we do? Yemen has been war torn for over five years yet, like many others, this is the first time I have learned about the emergency. What exactly caused a country to be this derelict?
Now, the history of Yemen’s war can be complicated, so bare with me. The first thing to note is Ali Abdullah Saleh’s role in Yemen, the former President, in power for twenty years. During the Arab Spring of 2011, Yemenis rose up against Saleh, who was disliked for his ties to the United States and his encouragement of terrorism to win Western support. This revolt brought in another key player, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which supported the overthrow of Saleh. After the revolution and with the new president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in power, Yemen only suffered greater. The GCC had dismissed the revolution’s initiatives and reinstalled the elitist’s in power, synonymous with Saleh.
Yemen’s factions had began to lose patients, including the Houthis, a minority group of Shia Muslims in Yemen. (If you have read about Afghanistan’s Taliban, this is a similar theocratic extremist group) By 2014, the Houthis became more active and, in fact joined, forces with Saleh allies- like two acquaintances bonding over a mutual enemy. Both the Houthis and the left over Saleh allies in the military felt ‘marginalised’ (as the Houthis claimed) by the GCC. This hostility against the government led them to dominate Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, in 2014.
Many have termed the war in Yemen as a “proxy war”. I would have to agree. While the Islamic politics in Yemen may be complex to an outsider, one thing is certain. The conflict on Yemen soil is in fact a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Going back to Saudi Arabia (part of the GCC), they expressed their war aims; to protect their southern border and contain the growing influence of Iran in Yemen. A proxy war, taking Yemenis as victims. They campaigned a Saudi-led intervention which consisted of 19,000 relentless airstrikes in the last four years. Though the misinformed media would state this was to attack the enemy, the strikes targeted hospitals and schools, killing thousands.
Now with the history lesson over, let us focus back to the crisis. The unyielding fighting is merely the tip of the iceberg. Who is supplying the weapons, bombs, ammunition? Who are training the pilots? Who is perpetuating the war and suffering? Everyone’s second favourite country (second to America), Britain. I will link more information on this below, as the British involvement in Yemen is a far larger fish to fry.
To add to the chaos, it was made almost impossible for Yemenis to gain aid and supplies as the Saudi-led coalition meant there was blocking of land and sea borders. This is very disheartening for those who have donated but do not let this deter you, just take extreme care when choosing a charity or donation site.
To exacerbate Yemen’s crisis, this relentless conflict will not subside during the Coronavirus pandemic, extreme rates of poverty and starvation, or cholera outbreaks. Although Yemen is estimated to be “deleted from maps all over the world”, the head of the United Nations Refugee Agency states, the country is receiving meagre media attention. To worsen the already struggling country, international aid agencies were forced to abandon essential and critical programmes due to the pandemic.
Imagine, if during the World War II Holocaust, the internet and social media existed. Imagine if global news spread at the speed of light about the 1932 Holodomor (Ukrainian for “killing by hunger, which took 1.8 to 12 million lives). How many lives would be saved?
We have the gift of the world wide web, instant access to information about what exactly is happening in every region of this planet. Don’t let this westernised, individualistic, fasted paced society fool you. We work and play in an autonomous society but we live in a heteronomous world. As hippie and ‘peace and love’ as it sounds, we all live on one planet, we are all brought here in the same way, we are all given one life, so why do those lives, 3,600 miles away, not matter?
There are countless ways to support and spread awareness for Yemen, with or without money. Take to Twitter or Instagram to share information, actively read and engage in the news (not just the 10pm broadcast), watch a YouTube video where the AdSense is donated to a legitimate charity. Donate through Unicef or Save the Children. The list goes on...
Article about Britian in Yemen: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/18/the-saudis-couldnt-do-it-without-us-the-uks-true-role-in-yemens-deadly-war
Save the Children: https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/how-you-can-help/emergencies/yemen-crisis
CAFOD: https://cafod.org.uk/Give/Donate-to-Emergencies/Yemen-Crisis-Appeal
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