EXPLAINER: The crisis in Yemen
Warning: graphic content
What is going on?
Yemen is undergoing a humanitarian crisis because of ongoing war, starvation, displacement and diseases. With 80 percent of the population affected by these circumstances, the impact on the Yemeni people is devastating.
The crisis worsened because of COVID-19. There were already limited resources in Yemen because of the pandemic, so Yemen is in dire need for humanitarian aid.
How did this start?
Conflict in Yemen has existed for years. However, it was not until 2015 when the Saudi-led coalition intervened that things escalated.
The war started after the political transition from then president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced to hand power to his deputy Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. The failed transition led to food insecurity, high unemployment rates and a separatist movement formed in the South.
The situation escalated when the Saudi-led coalition got involved after the Houthis, a rebel group, ousted the Hadi government in 2015. The Houthis later aligned with former president Saleh while the Saudi-led coalition backed Hadi.
Iran later aligned themselves with the Houthis, becoming their main international backer while providing them with weapons. Because of the history between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the Saudi-led coalition sees the Houthis as an Iranian proxy, further advancing their conflict.
The US, Canada and UK are also involved as allies to the Saudi-led coalition and supply them with the weapons and intelligence used to attack Yemen.
What are the effects?
Starvation
Because of the blockade by the Saudi-led coalition, it is hard for Yemeni civilians to receive aid. This has caused families to struggle with starvation.
20 million people struggle with food insecurity while children have the highest malnutrition rates of any other place in the world.
- UNICEF reports that every 10 minutes one child in Yemen dies from preventable causes.
- In November 2018, Save the Children reported that since the war intensified 85,000 children under five may have died in Yemen from starvation or disease.
Displacement
Because of the war, many Yemenis left their homes to look for safety. This left many people, predominantly women and children, displaced in areas without potable water.
- As of 2019, a total of 3.6 million people have been displaced because of the war and natural disasters, such as floods.
- 2 million children do not attend school and 3.7 million are at risk of dropping out.
- Water is a scarce resource in Yemen. Yemen is a hot country, so civilians have experienced water troubles before, but due to an increase in population and poor management of natural resources, water insecurity now affects about 50 percent of the population.
Disease
Yemen saw an outbreak of cholera among the population since the war began. Cholera, as described by the World Health Organization (WHO), is an infection derived from eating or drinking contaminated food or water. The outbreak began in 2017 and from that time to February 2020, there have been 2.3 million suspected cases of cholera and 3,786 deaths.
Left in such a vulnerable state, Yemen’s healthcare system is not strong enough to combat COVID-19. From April 29 to June 28, the WHO recorded 1107 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 297 deaths.
- There are 700 ICU beds and 500 ventilators in the entire nation.
- It is estimated that 20 percent of the 333 districts in the nation have no doctors.
What people can do to help
- Sign petitions
- Donate
- Educate yourself and others
- 2020 World Report
- Federation of American Scientists
- Raise awareness by sharing posts on social media
