Aspects of the Yemen Civil War Essay Example

📌Category: Modern Wars, War
📌Words: 1451
📌Pages: 6
📌Published: 20 June 2021

The principal problem which was the cause of the Yemen Civil War started from President Abdu Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who wanted to unite North and South Yemen not for democratic purposes instead because “he knew he had many enemies underground, out of sight; to participate in political parties, they would have to come out into the open, where he could watch them more closely. He supported multiparty democracy only to the extent that it was useful to him.” (Middle East Policy Council) After the unification of North and South, many southerners “believed they deserved more support from the central government in Sanaa, which they regarded as corrupt and controlling.” (Middle East Policy Council).

There were many more problems with it, the citizens felt safe no more in their country nor did they know if they woke up every day if there were food for them to eat. “The stalemate has produced an unrelenting humanitarian crisis, with at least 8.4 million people at risk of starvation and 22.2 million people - 75% of the population - in need of humanitarian assistance, according to the UN. Severe acute malnutrition is threatening the lives of almost 400,000 children under the age of five.” (BBC) Due to the conflict going on between the Yemen government and the Houthis’ it caused many deaths and rendered millions of people to starve. The most important cause of the Yemen war was for power and control, former President Saleh wanted to get his power back. Thus, giving the rise of the civil war in Yemen, where two factions believed they consisted rights of the Yemeni government. 

Historical Context

Yemen Civil War, is a conflict that has been going on since 2015 between two factions are the Yemeni government who was led by Abdu Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, and the Houthi-Saleh armored movement along with their supporters and allies. The conflict arose in 2011 in Arab Spring when the president of Yemen, who served for a long time was forced to give up his power to Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi who was his deputy at that time. President Hadi's, lack of ability to fulfill the needs of his citizens, unable to provide them food security, or security against other countries military forces, there was a lot of corruption going on as well, many soldiers (military officers) were still being loyal to Saleh. That was only the start, the real fight emerged in 2014 when ‘Houthi Shia Muslim’ rebel group saw the president's weaknesses as their strength and started to take advantage of it.

The ‘Houthi Shia Muslim’ group started taking over control of northern Saudi provinces and areas around it. They did not stop just there they wanted to make President Hadi go into exile abroad, so they decided to take the capital Sanaa. “Saudi Arabia established a coalition and launched a military operation which was aimed at restoring the rule of Yemen’s internationally recognized President Abdu Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.” (Congressional Research Service, pg. 1) However, the US, UK, France, and other Sunni Arab states did not want for them to take over and wanted to restore the power, and the government back into the hands of President Hadi so the US and its allies began to do air strikes against the ‘Houthi Shia Muslim’ group.

The conflict which happened between the factions caused more than 10,000 deaths and left more than millions of people left to die from starvation. “With Houthi-Saleh forces poised to seize control of Yemen’s government, Saudi Arabia may have acceded to Hadi’s request and launched military operations out of fear that Yemen, under Houthi-Saleh rule, would fall under Iranian influence.” (Congressional Research Service, pg. 1) Which was not good because there were other religions like Jews and Christians, but the ‘Houthi Shia Muslim’ group wanted to take over all the power and eliminate all other races and have the ‘Islamic’ religion only. Many of the soldiers fighting in the civil war in Yemen were children as little as 10 years old and told to get rid of Jews and Christians because they were adopting western influence.

Actors Interests, Interactions, & Institutions

The relevant actors in the Yemen Civil War were: Former President Ali Abdullah Saleh. He was the former President of Yemen from 1990 to 2012. “Under Saleh’s rule, political power gradually coalesced around his immediate family, whose members filled key posts in various security services. Corruption was rampant, and the country remained the poorest in the Arab world. In 2015 he announced his support for the Houthis against the Saudi-led coalition.”  (Congressional Research Service, pg. 5) His interest was in getting the control back into his hands because he believed President Hadi was weak and could not govern well. In order to achieve his goal, he joined the Saudi-led coalition to take back political control over the Yemeni government.

The second actor was: President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who served as a major general in the South Yemeni military. When Hadi had fled to North Yemen, he became a close ally to President Saleh. He served under President Saleh as his Vice President and Defense Minister. His interest was in to unify Yemen, not to spread democracy, but to make it easier for him to know out his enemies. By having a unified government, enemies of him would have to get out to participate in political affairs and it would be easier for him to see who the enemies are. 

Another main actor of the Yemen Civil War was Abdul Malik al Houthi, after the death of his brother Zaydi Hussein, Abdul Malik took over the movement and started to get more people to join their coalition in support of Saleh. His interest was in to restore the Zyadai Imamate and have Saleh back in power, and they aimed to achieve this by having a Houthi movement. Along with him was, Vice President Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar, who was an ally of former President Saleh who had an important role during the insurgency that was run by Abdul Malik. His contributions to aiding were towards the protests, and in 2012 President Hadi removed him from military command, by saying that he wanted to recreate the military. However, “in late 2015 he returned to lead military operations against the Houthis as part of the Saudi-led coalition, as one of the founding members of the Islah party.” (Congressional Research Service, pg. 5) 

Some other actors of the Yemen Civil War are the United States, United Nations, France, 8 other Sunni Arab states. Who dropped air strikes on the Houthis to give the power of control of the Yemeni government back to President Hadi. The U.S. decided to intervene “due to increased lawlessness in Yemen most likely will lead to more terrorist activity, U.S. involvement in Yemen would affect more than just U.S. interests-it would affect global energy security.” (Sharp, pg. 3) And the United Nations plays a major part in the global energy security which is why major countries decided to step in, for their interests and security. 

In order to achieve the political goals they all set in mind, they had to combine themselves into groups. The supporters of President Hadi were U.S., UN, FRANCE, & 8 other Sunni Arab states. In order for the U.S. and its allies to stop the war, they threatened the Houthi movement, and since they refused to stop they decided to do military air strikes on Houthis’. The Saleh supporters had movements like the Houthis movement to get Saleh back into office. “The U.S. established diplomatic relations with North Yemen in 1946 and South Yemen in 1967. The country remains deeply divided, with pockets of violent conflict ongoing.  The Houthis continue to control much of the north-west, including the capital, Sanaa.  Meanwhile, the legitimate Yemeni government re-established a presence in southern Yemen, including the port city of Aden.” (U.S. Department of State). Institutions that are relevant is for everyone to abide by the rules since many parts of Yemen are divided they have the power to do whatever they want and others cannot intervene.

The fight between the two seems to not end because while they may both just accept and live with the territories they gained the major international countries seems to not give up. Yemen signed an agreement with the U.S., and the U.S. is helping as much as they can by providing them with $875 million dollars with health and food-related issues along with providing them with American commandos to fight in the war against the Houthis. The U.S. and its allies are on the side of President Hadi because they believed that by having the political transition of President Saleh stepping down and giving the power to President Hadi would better the economy and the relations of the citizens.

However, like we all saw how that was disrupted fast and terrorist attacks happened, so the U.S. decided to step in so that way they have a part of Yemen knowing to support the U.S. if they ever needed help since they are helping them out right now (reciprocity). This is not the first time a country like the U.S. has decided to spend so much of its money and resources on problems of other countries. The U.S. in helping others gain back their territory will make stronger ties to the U.S. and when it is the U.S. in an attack, there will be people to help us out.

 

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