The world in question

Yemen: the forgotten war

Clashes around Marib, the last loyalist stronghold in northern Yemen, have intensified in recent months.

Here, a pro-government soldier holds a position against Houthi rebels, near Marib, on October 17, 2021. © AFP

By: Cyril Payen

2 mins

It has been almost seven years to the day since an Arab coalition under the Saudi banner launched a military intervention in Yemen against the Houthi rebel insurgency.

An endless war that brings the Yemeni people to their knees.

Why do peace attempts fail one by one? 

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The last mediation dates back only a few days.

It comes from the Gulf Cooperation Council, which proposed a meeting between Houthi insurgents based in Sanaa, the capital, and the Yemeni government entrenched in Aden, in the south.

Laudable proposition if it is except that the suggested meeting place was the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Riyadh, which has precisely been leading the armed coalition against the Houthis since 2015.

“ 

immediately replied a rebel official,

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» 

Dead end

This last episode perfectly embodies the diplomatic deadlock in the Yemeni conflict.

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According to the damning admission of the United Nations, it is because the war goes beyond the ancient kingdom of Sabah, one of the oldest cradles of civilization in the Middle East, because it is the scene of a struggle by proxy , a new form of religious cold war, between Iran and Saudi Arabia, between Sunni and Shiite clans.

The Houthi rebels are, more or less, integrated into the sphere of influence of Tehran, the sworn enemy of Saudi Arabia, which has therefore created a military coalition of ten Sunni countries to stop the rebel offensives against a government in agony in the south.  

But seven years later, the fighting continues to rage and Yemen sinks into horror.

Nearly 380,000 dead since 2015, 150,000 linked to the fighting and the majority, civilian populations, indirect victims of the conflict.

Lack of drinking water, hunger and disease.

And the escalation continues between the belligerents, after bloody clashes at the end of the year, with Houthi ballistic missile attacks on Abu Dhabi, an ally of Riyadh, in retaliation for intense bombardments on the northern strongholds.

Distant war, forgotten war, endless war.

Yemen without winner or loser is on the verge of collapse. 

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• Yemen

• Saudi Arabia