Essay on Yemen Conflict: The Perspectives of the Warring Parties

Today, numerous national conflicts and wars promote the development of humanitarian crises and other challenges of critical importance. The essence of a humanitarian crisis is a situation in which people face certain threats in regards to their health and safety. For many years, the majority of countries believed that humanitarian crises could occur only after a natural disaster or a climate change-related weather incident.

Today, however, war is the primary cause of humanitarian crises in many countries around the world. According to OCHA, the humanitarian situation in Yemen continues to deteriorate, with poverty, conflicts, and human rights violations increasing.1 This case study aims to describe the causes of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, analyzing the actions taken by the state, business, and third sectors, including different non-governmental voluntary organizations, and evaluating the responses of different parties.

essay on yemen conflict

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Yemen covers a 527,968-square-kilometer area on the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, and the country has a population of about 26,737,317 people.2 The Republic of Yemen was created in 1990. Just four years later, in 1994, the country survived a civil war caused by the political discontent of its citizens. At the end of 2009, al Qaeda based in Yemen was accused of terroristic activities. At that point, political conflicts with Saudi Arabia began. At the moment, Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the Arab world because of the devastation caused by multiple wars, airstrikes, and a poor economic situation.

The existing government of Yemen has tried to highlight the main needs of its people and protect their lives by any possible means. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other organizations that could promote the protection of human rights have already noted that Yemen is on the list of countries whose citizens are most in need of humanitarian help and have demonstrated that all parties of the conflict should take responsibility for human rights violations.5

It is also important to prevent young people from owning weapons and focusing on a war mentality because such attitudes could influence youth negatively. The nature of the conflict helps further clarify which types of interventions could be used to prevent rights abuses and threats.7 To this end, Badi underlined the fact that the history of the conflict should not be forgotten because its analysis and evaluation could help organizations understand its possible ways of development and measurements that could be imposed.

Representatives of the Yemeni government have taken several worthy steps to support negotiations and combine the intentions of political and military figures. Negotiations should be organized between local parties rather than at the international level. The support and involvement of international communities may promote new aspects of conflicts that will be harder for the country and its opponents to solve.

The main concern regarding the resolution of the Yemeni humanitarian crisis is that almost all actions and ideas are in verbal form only. Although many governmental and voluntary representatives recognize the necessity to solve the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the Yemeni people continue to suffer a lot. Instead of only providing humanitarian help, countries should think about how to stop war and conflict in the country and how to provide Yemeni children with a safe future. At the same time, an analysis of governmental steps and discussions shows that the value and quality of the humanitarian aid offered by foreign countries are doubtful.

On one hand, many people do receive the required rations of food and water to survive. On the other hand, however, it is hard to control how the offered help is distributed among the citizens of Yemen. All parties involved in this project have to understand one thing: the current humanitarian crisis in Yemen is the result of an internal conflict that has to be solved directly between the parties of the conflict. The participation of other countries and the need to prove the correctness of one party will not lead to positive results in the country.

The goal that Yemen must achieve at the moment is to stop the war and make sure that no other conflicts occur on the land. As soon as the leaders of the conflicting parties come to a resolution, the humanitarian crisis could be solved with the help of other countries and their humanitarian aid. However, until the war is over, the humanitarian crisis cannot be stopped.

In general, the political situation and the humanitarian crisis in Yemen are crucial points for consideration. People have to understand that the number of human deaths must be reduced. Humanitarian aid offered by both the Yemeni government and foreign countries could be effective as long as people can access it. However, the roles of foreign countries and the value of their humanitarian aid efforts should be re-evaluated to make sure they do not prevent the Yemeni government from solving the military conflict and protecting the lives of its people.

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OCHA included the figure in an update within its latest Global Humanitarian Overview, where it gave a description of the context, crisis and humanitarian needs in Yemen. It said the conflict had intensified this year, with 47 identifiable front lines by the end of October, up from 33 at the start of this year.

Driven by escalating conflict & a protracted economic blockade, humanitarian needs continued to grow in #Yemen, where 24.3 million people will need some form of humanitarian assistance &protection in 2021. Global Humanitarian Overview: #InvestInHumanity

Iran has consistently succeeded in navigating convoluted regional alliances. The country has even been able to maintain, and deepen, its relations with Turkey and Qatar, deconflicting its activities and theirs despite supporting the other side in the Syrian war. The recent downturn in relations between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar has provided a further opening for Iran to strengthen its ties with these countries.[11] More broadly, Iran has used shared interests in Syria to secure a widening strategic relationship with Russia.[12]

Distortions created by fragmented institutional capacity and diverging policy decisions across control lines have compounded a crisis created by protracted conflict, the interruption of essential services and rising fuel and food prices. The impact on Yemen's population has been devastating.

Similar to the ECRP, the ESPECRP, a US$504 IDA Grant, supports the provision of cash transfers, temporary employment, and increased access to basic services and economic opportunities to food insecure populations affected by COVID-19, the conflict and climate-related shocks, as well as to strengthen the capacity of national institutions. The project is also being implemented by UNDP, UNICEF, in partnership with the SFD and PWP. To date, and since becoming effective in December 2021, the project has reached 1,856 direct beneficiaries with wage employment. 3,666 million people have received access to community services (such as water, irrigation, and better roads), 484 mothers and children have received nutrition services, and 2904 people benefitted indirectly from nutrition services. The project has also supported 265 micro, small and medium enterprises, and provided 155,200 people with improved access to sanitation services to reduce water-borne diseases.

As of spring 2022, the conflict is continuing to escalate, United Nations mediation attempts have repeatedly failed, and there remains no internationally recognized government in place (Aljazeera, 2022; Reuters, 2022). As of 2022, 24 million Yemenis need assistance, 100,000 Yemenis have been killed since the start of the conflict in 2015, and 4 million remain displaced (Global Conflict Tracker, 2022).

I adapted my research plan on numerous occasions. Most of my research was composed of searching the history of Yemen, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Houthis on EBSCOHost. From there, I selected data on the conflict and pieced together an argument. When I needed to fill in gaps, I searched news articles. My research was nonlinear, because the ideas grew as I went along, thereby causing me to deviate from my original plan as needed.

Given that Saudi Arabia sought to amplify its power, its inability to conquer an easy target will be a major blow to its regional power status. If Iran is to cease support, it is likely that the Houthis would be capable of surviving on their own. Having sought gains in soft power, Iran will not lose out as extensively. Regardless, the real loser at the end of the conflict will be Yemen. The real calamity is that unchecked intervention has degraded the state and created further conflict. Under the guise of championing the oppressed, Saudi Arabia, the Houthis, and Iran have all made for a grave future for Yemen. I hope that readers will see through the layers of complexity of the Yemen conflict and better understand why foreign intervention can be dangerous and costly.

By studying the conflict in Yemen so deeply, I have garnered a greater appreciation for research in international politics. I underestimated how in-depth and complex the research process is. Most importantly, I have learned that research is not rigid; it morphs and grows with each new discovery, and often more questions arise than answers. Because of this research, I now think about the world in terms of opportunities and incentives, on the global and personal level. My next goal is to apply the ideas that I theorized in this project to an exploration of international politics from a financial incentive perspective. This perspective is important to include in the research of world affairs, because, more often than not, money is at the heart of conflicts. After graduation, I hope to follow my passion for researching international conflict and to publish more of my writing on the subject. 2ff7e9595c