In one of the sitcom Friends episodes Chandler attempts to
evade an on-and-off girlfriend by telling her he’s been transferred to Yemen.
It's the furthest place he can think of, where she can’t possibly follow him. Joey
remarks, “Yemen, that actually sounds like a real country.”
It perhaps explains why few care about Yemen and why it has
become a forgotten war. This is a complicated civil which makes the simplistic
sound-bites and one-minute analysis of the news-rooms difficult so it is often
reduced to a proxy war between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran. It lacks the
clear good guy versus bad guy story-line so isn’t very popular in the search
for a television audience. The media, insteads, gravitates towards the bigger
regional conflicts in Syria, Iraq or Libya, whose impact on the West is so much
clearer to define.
Ali Abdullah Saleh ruled
the country for 33 years and had been battling a Shiite Houthi rebellion since
2004, being forced out in 2011 amid a power struggle with opposition leaders
and their tribal militias, as the country was rocked by months of popular
demonstrations against his rule. His replacement, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, is the
internationally recognised president of Yemen, but he has been effectively
ousted when the Houthi rebels took the capital in January last year. That he was
once the leader of a united Yemen and sponsored by Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf
States is his main claim to legitimacy, but he also happens to be allied on the
side of southern separatists, anti-Houthi tribal leaders and Sunni Islamists. The
Houthis are often portrayed as proxies Iran, they have their own grievances,
leaders, and decision-makers. Confusingly, they are now also backed by Saleh,
their former enemy. Islamist groups have meanwhile taken advantage of the chaos
to gain new territory. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and so-called
Islamic State are both now present in the strategically important southern port
of Aden.
UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia last year were at a record
high – 2.8 billion pounds ($4.2 billion) in the first three quarters alone. That’s
dwarfed by US sales. Since September 2014, Obama’s administration has informed
Congress of arms sales to Saudi Arabia totaling more than $21 billion. Some
members of Congress have spoken out against a proposed $1.29 billion deal on
air-to-ground munitions because of how they might be used in Yemen, but the
sale appears poised to go ahead.
The World Health Organization counts more than 6,000
conflict related deaths in the last 11 months. Given that Yemen’s health system
is decimated – there’s a lack of supplies, not to mention 69 facilities damaged
or destroyed – and 14.1 million Yemenis lack sufficient access to healthcare,
it’s safe to say the real number is higher. 19.3 million people lack access to
clean water or sanitation, and almost 320,000 children are severely
malnourished.
OCHCR, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,
recorded 318 civilian casualties in January: 118 killed, 200 injured. This
brings estimated civilian casualties since March 2015 to 8,437: 2,913 civilians
killed, 5,524 injured. By comparison, after a year of conflict in Syria, the UN
was reporting 7,500 deaths.
Some day not so far in the future people will be asking why
the world didn't we pay more attention to Yemen? Why didn't we take it more
seriously when it had a chance to do something?
To answer Joey, Yemen
is a real country and its people are real flesh and blood, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment