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Jan 22, 20216 min read

The Yemen Humanitarian Crisis

How the world is failing Yemen


Image Credit © UNICEF/UNI338488/

Abstract

Yemen is the Middle East’s poorest country according to recent statistics; more than 80% of its population is in dire need of humanitarian aid and a percentage of no less than 70% is malnourished or food insecure. But how did Yemen, a country rich in natural resources such as crude oil and gas and strategically placed near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, become one of today’s failed countries, with a tanking economy and a population suffering the worst humanitarian crisis in the world? This article aims to overview the distressing and desperate situation of Yemen, in light of the catastrophic consequences of the ongoing pandemic, epidemics and civil war.


Background

History

At the beginning of the 20th century, when the massive oil reserves hiding beneath the Arabic peninsula were discovered, Yemen, as well as its neighbouring Arab countries, were predominantly made up of small tribes, called sheiks. As the power dynamics changed and the rapidly modernizing Middle East became the epicentre of the time’s most valuable resource, the “black gold”, European nations and the United States of America embarked on a mission to divide their influence on the newly discovered reserves. In Yemen, the United Kingdom had already established the Aden Protectorate in 1839, which functioned as a conglomerate of self-ruling sheikdoms, sultanates and emirates under British influence. However, the status quo enforced by the British was challenged numerous times and, in the winter of 1962, the protectorate was overthrown and the territory became the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, with its capital in the port city of Aden; it was a Marxist-Leninist one-party state, receiving support from the Soviet Union and its allies, East Germany and Cuba. Once the USSR began facing economic challenges, it stopped its financial support to South Yemen, therefore forcing it to cope with the rising economic hardships of its own.


The north-western region of current-day Yemen formed the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR), which became an independent country in 1918, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The country then known as the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen was pestered by conflict until 1968, when an anti-royalist coup d’état managed to overthrow the current regime after a siege of the capital, Sana’a. In 1970, Saudi Arabia recognized the Yemen Arab Republic, marking its transition from absolutist monarchy to republic.

Before 1980, when the first oil reserve was discovered in Yemen, a war broke out between the two Yemeni countries, resulting in a peace brokered by the Arab League, which paved the way towards the unification of Yemen. By that time, the president of the YAR was Ali Abdullah Saleh, while South Yemen was ruled by president Ali Salim al-Beidh.


The unification of Yemen took place on May 22nd 1990, with the North Yemeni president Saleh becoming the head of the newly-formed state, and with al-Beidh becoming Vice-president. Unfortunately, the goal of unity and the peace reached by the means of unification would be short-lived, as the invasion of Kuwait crisis in 1990 saw Yemen angering the United States and Saudi Arabia with its unfavourable votes in the UN Security Council on matters regarding Kuwait and Iraq. This led to the expulsion of more than 800,000 Yemenis from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, as well as civil unrest, which created an ideal breeding ground for religious extremism, fueled by the al-Islah party.


Conflict

Insurgencies and conflicts of interest deeply scarred the emerging Yemeni economy, the economy of a recently unified nation with democratic expectations and a relatively newly discovered oil and gas reserve. Despite the fact that its oil reserve is no match for those of its Arab neighbours, Yemen’s finances were largely fueled by the oil economy, as the precious resource made up a share of 63% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product).


One of the most important factors contributing to the instability of Yemen was and still is the religious make-up of its population: a Shia majority inhabits the north-western part of the country, while the rest is predominantly Sunni. This ethnoreligious distribution of the population was the fuse of several extremist and terrorist organizations exploited. In 2009, Al-Qaeda insurgencies in the eastern part of the country triggered military action from the Yemeni army, as well as from the United States of America; in 2010, the American government increased military aid to the Middle East to $140 million.



The conflict escalated to a tragic scale with the Shia Houthi invasion from the Northern part of Yemen. After the seizing of the capital city of Sana’a, Yemen was divided and influence over the nation was split between the belligerents of the war; with a full-blown civil war on their hands and the prices of oil going down, the Middle Eastern country was heading towards failure. Two years into the conflict, Yemen was divided between the Houthi forces (backed by Iran), the Yemeni government forces, the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization and the forces backed by the United Arab Emirates.


Most say that, after the dust settled in the light of the Arab Spring, it was clear a Cold War was unravelling in the Arab world, with the main actors being Saudi Arabia (a predominantly Sunni country) and Iran (a Shia theocracy). Thus, the wars taking place around the Arabian peninsula and throughout the Middle East were considered to be proxies in the carefully balanced game of influence fought over the region. With religion as the main catalyzer for the conflict, Yemen became one of the most prominent battlefields of the clash between ideologies. An already contracting economy, solely dependent on the fluctuating price of oil, Yemen wasn’t a safe investment for any company or nation, therefore further limiting the economic capacities of the failing country.


A large cholera outbreak and a measles epidemic isolated the country from its neighbours, and the capital city of Sana’a, still in the hands of the Houthi rebels, made headlines as the world’s only capital without potable water. Yemen is still grappling with continuous outbreaks of preventable diseases such as Dengue Fever and diphtheria, considering that the country doesn’t have safe water supplies or access to resources that would ensure humanitarian aid. The failing currency, the Yemeni Rial, equals roughly €0.0033, with prices on a downward spiral. Attempts at establishing a long-lasting peace or a stable central government have failed repeatedly, and the ceasefire brokered by the United Nations that would guarantee Houthi influence in the majoritarian Shia region was broken. The transitional government supported by the Sunni nations of the Middle East has scarce support and the country is fragmented and continuously weakened.


An important role in the fragmentation of Yemen is played by the lack of cohesion or collective identity of the sheikdoms and emirates of the region, as a national congruity hasn’t been cultivated before the mid-20th century. Religion acts as the binding agent of the inhabitants and is, therefore, a substantial weapon in the hands of the influential powers of the Middle East.



Impact

How did the continuous fighting and the non-existent infrastructure affect the lives of the 28,5 million inhabitants of Yemen? Statistics show that 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, while 70% of Yemenis (20,1 million people) are food insecure or malnourished. 35% of the population is one step away from famine and the conflict has resulted in 3,3 million internally displaced people (just over 11% of the current population). 17,8 million people (over 50% of Yemenis) need water and sanitation, and 19,7 million people need basic healthcare. Over 3 million children and women are acutely malnourished. The United Nations registers 9,864 deaths directly resulting from the conflict (mostly civilians), and estimates more than 60,000 injuries linked to the strife.


The World Bank and the United Nations define Yemen as a failed state, as the central government is too fragmented, weak and corrupt to be able to handle the ongoing humanitarian crisis of unmatched proportions in the world. As Encyclopaedia Britannica characterizes it, a failed state is “a state that is unable to perform the two fundamental functions of the sovereign nation-state in the modern world system: it cannot project authority over its territory and people, and it cannot protect its national boundaries”. Yemen’s economy is contracting and its people are suffering due to the conflict and inexistent infrastructure that could have ensured the continuous flow of capital into the country.


As oil prices are falling, so is all hope for Yemen to be able to regain its stability and rebuild itself from the ground up. Now, it is up to the United Nations to help this failed country and its people; humanitarian aid is the only hope for the millions of Yemenis at the brink of starvation, fighting off diseases and conflict.


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