Forum: Human Rights Council Issue: The Humanitarian Consequences of the Yemeni Civil War Student Officers: Adham Zaineldin, Hannah Nawar, Yomna Ibrahim I. Introduction: For the better part of the past decade, Yemen has been struggling with arguably the world's most urgent humanitarian crisis. Disease, instability, and civilian deaths are increasingly widespread, and, despite the many attempts to resolve the conflict, the war still wages on. The civil war, which has been subsisting for the past 6 years, has caused immeasurable damage to Yemen and the Yemeni people. Despite the great involvement of foreign countries in the crisis, most of the involved nations have failed to provide sufficient aid and assistance to compensate for the damage they have caused. Although many peace agreements have been set up between the parties, these efforts have proven to be futile as foreign involvement and funding in the civil war have continued to increase. The Civil War has had devastating consequences on Yemen, leaving the country severely damaged both socially and economically. It has led to what the U.N. has labeled the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis”, causing countless civilian injuries and deaths and forcing countless others to flee their homes and seek refuge in nearby countries. The war has also significantly damaged Yemen's economy; exports have effectively ceased, the currency has weakened greatly, and the war has caused immense infrastructural damage. The United Nations Human Rights Council will attempt to find a solution to this devastating humanitarian crisis, in order to finally give the Yemeni people the peace they so rightfully deserve. II. Definition of Key Terms: Arab Spring: a series of anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across several Arab countries in the early 2010s. The protests began in Tunisia, before spreading to Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. Refugee: an individual who is forced to leave their country/city to escape war or persecution. Ceasefire: an agreement between two opposing sides in a war to temporarily stop fighting. Humanitarian Crisis: a singular event or a series of events that are threatening in terms of health, safety or well-being of a community or large group of people. Civil War: a war between citizens of the same country. III. Focused Overview: 1. Background of the Civil War: The Yemeni Civil War is an ongoing conflict that has been terrorizing Yemeni citizens for nearly a decade. In order to truly understand the gravity of the situation, we must first analyze the root of the civil war: a failure in the attempt to have a political transition. In 2011, a rebellious uprising forced the former authoritarian president Ali Abdullah Saleh to abdicate, leaving Abdrabbuh Al-Hadi, a former field marshal in the Yemeni army, in power. President Al-Hadi was unable to deal with the many issues that plagued Yemen at the time; corruption, jihadist attacks, food insecurity, and unemployment were exceedingly common during his rule. Due to the state of the country’s economy, the newly formed Houthi Movement began to rebel against Saleh by taking control over the Saada province and Figure 1: Yemen Arab Spring Protests of 2011 neighboring areas. With the Source: Illinois Library support of its inhabitants, the rebels began to gradually take over Sanaa (the Yemeni capital) during late 2014 and early 2015. With the help of security forces who had previously been loyal to President Saleh, the rebels continued their offensive, forcing the president to flee on March 15. This incident officially marked the beginning of the Yemeni Civil War. 2. The Yemeni Civil War: When President Saleh resigned his post and escaped to Aden in January 2015, most people assumed that that meant he was surrendering. However, his intentions were quite the contrary. Weeks after his initial resignation, President Saleh fled to Saudi Arabia and declared that he was withdrawing his resignation and that he was the legitimate president of Yemen. His pleas led Saudi Arabia, along with Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Bahrain, Sudan, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates, to formulate an anti-Houthi coalition and launch Operation Decisive Storm. The United States also declared its support for the coalition, deeming Saleh the legitimate president of Yemen. However, the operation did not last for long, as only a month after its launch the operation was abandoned and replaced with Operation Restoring Hope. Despite the operation coming to an end on paper, Saudi Arabia continued to bomb Houthi forces in Yemen. This did not seem to affect the Houthi offensive, as they declared a formal alliance with former president Saleh and continued capturing key locations in Yemen, most importantly the city of Ataq and the Shabwah Governorate. In spite of heavy Houthi fire, government forces with support from Saudi troops were able to recapture Aden in September 2015. President Hadi subsequently returned to Yemen and established his reposition in Aden. Terrorist groups, mainly ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and AQAP (Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula), began increasing their involvement in the war, capturing key locations in Aden in January 2016. The United States began launching direct attacks on Yemen in 2016, launching an estimated 35 strikes on Houthi troops that year. In April, the United Nations sponsored talks between President Hadi and Houthi leaders, which resulted in several ceasefires being set up in the following months. However, the ceasefires did not last long, as both sides broke the ceasefires in October. At this time, the war was mostly centered in Taiz, Marib, Sanaa, and the Saudi Yemeni border but it continued to spread to other provinces in the following years. Meanwhile, Houthis continued to attack pro-Hadi troops, claiming responsibility for launching missiles on Riyadh, the Saudi Capital, in May 2017. In December 2017, former president Saleh declared that he was no longer affiliated with the Houthis and that he was siding with President Hadi and the Saudis. However, less than a month after his decision, he was assassinated by Houthi troops. His son, Ahmed Saleh, took his place and continued fighting the Houthis. The United Arab Emirates began leading increasingly frequent attacks on Yemeni soil, helping with the capture of Aden in January 2018 and the island of Socotra in May 2018. In December 2018, the U.S. senate attempted to end U.S. Figure 2: Current Situation in Yemen military participation, however President Source: Polgeonow Donald Trump vetoed the attempt. The Houthis continued to attack Saudi troops in 2019, both by launching missiles directly at Saudi territory and by attacking Saudi troops through the newly constructed “Operation Victory from God”. The rise of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 led to a brief ceasefire, however both sides soon resumed fighting. Today the war is still as heated as ever, with the Houthis struggling against Al-Hadi supporters over control of Yemen. 3. Humanitarian Impact of the War: This conflict has had a devastating impact on all aspects of Yemeni life. It has led to nearly 250,000 Yemeni deaths, both directly through the war and indirectly through food shortages and poor medical conditions. Countless more have been left injured or in critical condition, unable to attain the medical attention they so desperately need. According to the United Nations, nearly 2.3 million Yemeni children less than five years old are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year alone, 400,000 of which are likely to die if they do not receive urgent medical attention. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which has labeled Yemen the world’s “worst humanitarian crisis”, has approximated that nearly 24 million citizens (80% of the population) are in need of humanitarian assistance. The war has also caused one of the world’s most urgent refugee crises. The United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than 4 million Yemeni citizens have been forced to flee their homes and have consequently been displaced (either internally or externally). Food shortages are increasingly common, as it is estimated that around 16 million Yemenis are food insecure and that around a third of the population have gaps in their diets (eg. no meat). 4. Economic Impact of the War: Of the many consequences the Yemeni Civil War has had on Yemen is its devastating impact on the economy. The GDP, which had already fell by a staggering 45% due to the war before the arrival of Covid-19, further plummeted in 2020, falling by another 8.5%. Inflation has been at threateningly high levels, as current prices are on average more than 140% higher than what they were before the war. This has caused the currency’s value to plummet, falling by more than 70% of its pre-war value. Both imports and exports have fallen drastically, and the fall in fuel imports has led to widespread fuel shortages. Figure 3: Graph of the GDP of Yemen Source: Statista IV. Major Parties Involved: 1. Republic of Yemen: This is the group internationally recognized as the official government of Yemen. Despite this, they are by no means in complete control of Yemen, as they are still struggling with the Houthis over control. The war between forces loyal to President Hadi and those aligned with the Houthi rebel movement has taken a toll on Yemen. Since March 2015, nearly 250,000 Yemeni people have died and more left in critical condition. These deaths were mostly a result of air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition supporting President Hadi and Houthi attacks on pro-Hadi troops. The war and the coalition's naval blockade have wreaked havoc on the country. With the assistance of the Saudi-led coalition, the pro-Hadi forces have been attempting to regain control of the Houthi-led regions of the country, trying to minimize the harm to both the citizens and the country.