The Puppet Masters of Yemen’s Humanitarian Crisis

“The question worth asking is: Who stands to benefit from the continual fueling, participation, and organization of a war that threatens to destabilize Yemen irreversibly?”

Introduction

When Yemeni human rights activist Tawakkol Karman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2011, many saw it as a symbol of democratic transition in Yemen following the Arab Spring. In the wake of the revolution, vice-president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi became the new president of Yemen in an uncontested election.

But as swiftly as peace arrived, it evaporated. The central government in Yemen’s capital city of Sana’a, still recovering its strength following former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s removal, found itself having to stave off challenges from southern separatists and northern Houthi insurgent groups. Then, in September 2014, insurgent forces led by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi descended into the capital and forced President Hadi to agree to a “unity” government. However, the Houthis refused to participate in government proceedings and even shelled the president’s residence before placing him under house arrest. The government’s mass resignation was obtained shortly thereafter in January 2015. What followed was the dissolution of parliament and the declaration of a Revolutionary Committee under Mohammed Ali al-Houthi. The constitutional declaration of 2015 was widely rejected by foreign governments and the United Nations (U.N.).

Many people are aware of these events, but few are aware that in the shadow of a bloody civil war, there is an equally deadly killer on the loose. Yemen is currently facing the worst cholera outbreak in recorded human history, infecting an estimated 2.3 million people and killing nearly 4,000. This comes as another painful blow to millions of already malnourished and starving Yemenis living through a debilitating famine. The confluence of these factors has created a country with one of the world’s highest number of immunocompromised individuals. 2020 ushered in the new decade, but as if the triumvirate of civil war, cholera and famine were not bad enough, a novel foe arrived.