In October 2016, in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, a facility where a funeral was being held was hit by an airstrike, resulting in a tragedy that, according to UN estimates, claimed roughly 140 lives. The party that carried out the strike asserts it was a “mistaken” attack based on incorrect information about the target, but harm from the armed conflict, including indiscriminate airstrikes, has been continuous since last year; according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as of July last year roughly four out of five people in Yemen were in need of humanitarian assistance, a situation they had fallen into. The devastation has still not improved, and along with Iraq and Syria, Yemen’s humanitarian crisis level is recognized as the most severe, “L3.”
Yemen devastated by conflict (Photo: United Nations OCHA / Philippe Kropf [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])
Because the damage within Yemen is particularly pronounced, this series of clashes is sometimes called the “Yemen Civil War,” but the situation is not simple enough to be reduced to a “civil war.” As with the airstrike above, which, according to the same report, was carried out by a Saudi-led coalition, a variety of actors both inside and outside the country are entangled in this conflict. Beyond Yemen’s own historical background, you cannot understand this conflict without knowing which countries and organizations are involved, for what purposes, and how.
The Republic of Yemen was established in 1990 through the unification of North Yemen and South Yemen. Since its founding, however, it has remained unstable, including experiencing a conflict in 1994. In 2004, the Houthi movement, a Shiite-affiliated group with its own religious and political ideology, took up arms and launched an anti-government movement. In 2009, the Houthis also clashed with Saudi Arabian forces along the border with Saudi Arabia. Although it was quelled for a time, dissatisfaction with the new government led by interim President Hadi, who came to power in the wake of the 2011 “Arab Spring,” led to renewed anti-government activity, and in 2014 the Houthis seized the capital, Sana’a. Then even the forces of former president Saleh, who had been ousted, ended up siding with the Houthis. Furthermore, taking advantage of government forces being concentrated in the north during the struggle over the capital, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), an extremist organization, has expanded its influence mainly in the south, where government control has grown weak. For AQAP, not only the government but also the Houthis, who belong to a different sect, are enemies, creating a three-way standoff.
Yemeni soldier (2006) (Photo: Dmitry Chulov / Shutterstock.com)
What further complicates this conflict is that, in addition to the three parties mentioned above, there are the combatants actually taking part in the fighting—that is, the parties to the conflict—and the countries that support each of these forces. Below, I will categorize and organize them.
(1) Provisional Yemeni government side
(a) Parties
・Provisional Yemeni government: Faced with the rise of the Houthis, interim President Hadi struggled—forced to take refuge in Saudi Arabia for as long as eight months—but returned to Yemen along with the coalition’s advance and is aiming to retake the capital, Sana’a.
・Saudi-led coalition (UAE, Qatar, Pakistan, etc.): Saudi Arabia is leading neighboring Sunni countries in conducting airstrikes against anti-government forces, but the civilian toll has raised humanitarian concerns, and the weakness of the UN Secretariat’s response to these issues has also been questioned. In addition, wealthy states such as the UAE and Qatar have deployed at least 450 mercenaries to Yemen as ground troops, mainly from Latin American countries such as Colombia, Panama, El Salvador, and Chile. Other countries participating in the air campaign include Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Sudan.
・United States: Seeking to defeat al-Qaeda, with which it is hostile, it has primarily carried out drone strikes against AQAP and other extremist militant groups, and in February of this year it killed a figure believed to be a senior AQAP leader. Although there had been no direct fighting with the Houthis until then, in October of the same year it finally launched missiles from a warship at Houthi radar sites in Yemen, after a U.S. Navy vessel off Yemen’s coast first came under missile attack. At the same time, it provides Saudi Arabia with technical assistance to improve the accuracy of airstrikes, as well as logistical support, intelligence assistance, and arms sales. It also aims, through this support, to help Saudi Arabia maintain its borders in order to safeguard freedom of navigation through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea and carries a high volume of oil shipments.
(b) Supporting countries
・United Kingdom, France, and Canada: They provide military support to the Saudi-led coalition, seeking the economic benefits conferred by arms sales. They also aim to contain AQAP and other groups and reduce terrorism in Europe.
(2) Anti-government side
(a) Parties
・Houthi–Saleh alliance: After occupying the capital, Sana’a, it has advanced military operations with its sights set on Aden in the south, which interim President Hadi designated as the new capital. The Houthis had long asserted the legitimacy of being a political organization, but after taking the capital they declared that they had formed a new Yemeni government.
(b) Supporting countries
・Iran: A major Shi’a power, it is said to have repeatedly provided economic and military support to the Houthis, who are also Shi’a-affiliated. In that both dislike seeing the Sunni Saudi bloc expand its influence further, Iran and the Houthis can be said to share similar geographic and political objectives.
(3) Other armed groups
(a) Parties
・AQAP: Advocating jihad against the United States, it has carried out numerous attacks, including the 2000 suicide bombing of the U.S. Aegis destroyer USS Cole in the port of Aden. It also continues attacks on Yemeni security institutions in retaliation for foreign raids and for sweeps and arrests by security forces. In expanding its territory and actually governing the areas it occupies, it is distinct from earlier forms of al-Qaeda.
This conflict is often portrayed as “Saudi Arabia vs. Iran,” but viewed as above, that is not necessarily an appropriate frame. There is no official information that Iran is directly participating in combat against the coalition. As with the “Yemen Civil War” label, misunderstandings about this conflict remain strong. In reality, as seen above, the countries and forces involved each have their own political objectives. We need to examine each actor’s positions and intentions with a broad perspective.
As of October 2016, the Yemen conflict has not yet reached a ceasefire agreement.
Writer: Kosuke Matsuoka
Graphics: JT-FSD
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