Responding to Yemen Civil War

What is the issue?

• A recent attack on a bus in a crowded market in southern Yemen has killed at least 45 people, most of them children.
• The rising toll on civilian lives calls for serious measures to address the Yemen civil war.

What is going on in Yemen?

• The Yemeni Civil War is an ongoing conflict that began in 2015.
• It is the tussle between two factions claiming to constitute the Yemeni government.
• One is Yemen’s Shia Houthi rebels, loyal to the former President.
• They are in clashes with forces loyal to the current government.
• The Houthi forces captured huge swathes of territory, significantly the Yemen capital Sana'a.
• Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are also involved in the conflict.
• Saudi Arabia led military intervention in Yemen began over 3 years ago.
• A coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched military operations by using airstrikes.
• This is to restore the Yemeni government which is overthrown by Houthi.
• The Saudi-led coalition is backed by the U.S.

What are the implications?

• There is absence of a functional government in the country and the rebels are fighting the Saudi invasion.
• The attacks have targeted public infrastructure, killed thousands of civilians, and displaced many more.
• The recent attack comes in the line of atrocities as part of the Saudi's military intervention.
• Ever since the air strikes, the civilian toll had been particularly rising.
• UN reports that from March 2015 to March 2017, around 16,000 people have been killed in Yemen, including 10,000 civilians.
• Saudi Arabia's use of excessive force has plunged Yemen among the poorest in West Asia.
• The military intervention had even led to a blockade, affecting food and aid supplies.
• More than eight million people are threatened by acute hunger.
• The health-care system has collapsed and people have been cut off from regular access to clean water.
• In recent years, the country has had an unprecedented cholera outbreak that killed over 2,000 people.

What is Saudi's response?

• The United Nations has called it the world’s most severe humanitarian crisis.
• But Saudi Arabia has paid little attention to growing international criticism.
• Worryingly, it has not come under any serious international pressure to halt its catastrophic campaign.
• It even said the recent bus attack was “a legitimate military action”.
• It only accused the rebels of using children as human shields.
• The Saudis say the Houthi rebels are backed by Iran, its regional rival.
• It also claims that its campaign has been on behalf of the internationally recognised government of Yemen.
• But ironically, Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi is nowhere to be seen.
• He is reported to be under house arrest in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

What is the way forward?

• The military campaign has been a failure from a strategic point of view as well.
• Even after more than 3 years of attacks, the rebels still have their areas of influence, including Sana'a.
• It is high time the international community paid serious attention to Yemen's humanitarian crisis.
• The Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia should stop the war.
• He should push for a negotiated settlement between the Yemeni government and the rebels.

Source: The Hindu