Final Project

Yemen Civil War:

How did the people in Yemen survive

under the disaster

Table of Contents

4 Yemeni Civil War
6 Not a single child spared the ‘mind-

boggling violence’ of Yemen’s war

8 Humanitarian crisis in Yemen
remains the worst in the world

10 ‘Hell’ in Yemen, with millions
‘knocking on the door of famine’

12 ‘I am alive, but I feel like I am dead’:
a migrant grieves the drowning of 3
children

14 UN envoy highlights diplomatic unity, as
key to help end Yemen war

16 More violence ‘last thing Yemen
needs’, peace ‘only way’ to resolve
crises

18 Faces of war and peace in Yemen

Yemeni Civil War

is an ongoing multi-sided civil war that began in late 2014 mainly between the Abdrabbuh
Mansur Hadi-led Yemeni government and the Houthi armed movement, along with
their supporters and allies. Both claim to constitute the official government of Yemen.

The civil war began in September 2014 support the Houthis, the conflict has been
when Houthi forces took over the capital widely seen as an extension of the Iran–
city Sanaa, which was followed by a rapid Saudi Arabia proxy conflict and as a means
Houthi takeover of the government. On to combat Iranian influence in the region.
21 March 2015, the Houthi-led Supreme
Revolutionary Committee declared a Houthi forces currently control the capital
general mobilization to overthrow Hadi Sanaa and all of North Yemen except
and expand their control by driving into Marib Governorate. They have clashed
southern provinces. The Houthi offensive, with Saudi-backed pro-government forces
allied with military forces loyal to Saleh, loyal to Hadi. Since the formation of the
began fighting the next day in Lahij Southern Transitional Council in 2017
Governorate. By 25 March, Lahij fell to the and the subsequent capture of Aden by
Houthis and they reached the outskirts the STC in 2018, the anti-Houthi coalition
of Aden, the seat of power for Hadi’s has been fractured, with regular clashes
government. Hadi fled the country the between pro-Hadi forces backed by Saudi
same day. Concurrently, a coalition led by Arabia and southern separatists backed
Saudi Arabia launched military operations by the United Arab Emirates. Al-Qaeda
by using air strikes to restore the former in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the
Yemeni government. Although there Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have
was no direct intervention by Iran, who also carried out attacks against both

4

factions, with AQAP controlling swathes sex tourism industry. The poorest people
of territory in the hinterlands, and along in Yemen work locally and children are
stretches of the coast. commonly sold as sex slaves abroad.
While this issue is worsening, the plight
According to ACLED, over 100,000 people of Somali’s in Yemen has been ignored by
have been killed in Yemen, including the government.
more than 12,000 civilians, as well as
estimates of more than 85,000 dead as a Children are recruited between the
result of an ongoing famine due to the ages of 13 and 17, and as young as 10
war.In 2018, the United Nations warned years old into armed forces despite
that 13 million Yemeni civilians face a law against it in 1991. The rate
starvation in what it says could become of militant recruitment in Yemen
“the worst famine in the world in 100 increases exponentially. According to an
years.”The crisis has only begun to gain international organization, between 26
as much international media attention as March and 24 April 2015, armed groups
the Syrian Civil War in 2018. recruited at least 140 children.According

Impact on citizens to the New York Times report, 1.8 million
children in Yemen are extremely subject
to malnutrition in 2018.

Yemeni refugee women and children
are extremely susceptible to smuggling
and human trafficking. NGOs report that
vulnerable populations in Yemen were
at increased risk for human trafficking in
2015 because of ongoing armed conflict,
civil unrest, and lawlessness. Migrant
workers from the Somalia who remained
in Yemen during this period suffered
from increased violence, and women
and children became most vulnerable
to human trafficking. Prostitution on
women and child sex workers is a social
issue in Yemen. Citizens of other gulf
states are beginning to be drawn into the

5

Not a single child spared the
‘mind-boggling violence’ of
Yemen’s war

Four years of “mind-boggling violence” in Yemen “has not spared a single child”, a
top UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) official said on Monday, on the eve of a pledging
conference in Geneva to help alleviate the suffering of millions across the country.

“In Yemen today, nearly 1.2 million children continue to live in 31 active conflict
zones including Hudaydah, Taizz, Hajjah and Sa’da – in areas witnessing heavy, war-
related violence”, said Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle
East and North Africa.
Since the Stockholm Agreement was reached following UN-brokered consultations
last December between the Yemeni Government and Houthi rebel leaders, not
enough has changed for the children there, the senior agency official declared.
The impact of the conflict in Yemen runs deep and has not spared a single child –
UNICEF Regional Director

6

Every day since then, he said, children have been killed or injured, mostly while
playing outdoors or on their way to or from school.
“The impact of the conflict in Yemen runs deep and has not spared a single child”,
spelled out Mr. Cappelaere. “Mind-boggling violence over the past four years, high
levels of poverty, and decades of conflicts, neglect and deprivation, are putting a
heavy strain on Yemeni society, tearing apart its social fabric – fundamental for any
society and especially for children”.
UNICEF and its humanitarian partners have stepped-up efforts to tackle the world’s
largest humanitarian crisis, with the World Bank and UNICEF providing 1.5 million of
the country’s poorest families with emergency cash assistance, to help prevent illegal
child labour practices, marriage or recruitment into rebel forces.
“In 2019, UNICEF is appealing for $542 million to continue responding to the massive
needs of children in Yemen,” the Regional Director said.
Noting that generosity alone “will not bring an end to children’s suffering in Yemen”,
he again called on all warring parties to “put an end to violence in hotspots and
across all of Yemen, protect civilians, keep children out of harm’s way and allow
humanitarian deliveries to children and their families wherever they are in the
country.”
As the international community meets in Geneva for a high-level pledging event for
the humanitarian crisis on Tuesday, UNICEF appealed for “unconditional contributions
to provide lifesaving assistance” to Yemen’s children and urged a “massive re-
investment” in the country to help Yemeni children have the future every parent
aspires to for their own children.
“This is the only way that Yemen can stand back on its feet, stressed Mr. Cappelaere.
“If not, Yemen will be riddled with violence and its future will hang by a thread – with
disastrous consequences for children.”

7

Humanitarian crisis in Yemen
remains the worst in the world

An estimated 24 million people – close to 80 per cent of the population – need
assistance and protection in Yemen, the UN warned on Thursday. With famine
threatening hundreds of thousands of lives, humanitarian aid is increasingly
becoming the only lifeline for millions across the country.

8

According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) the
“severity of needs is deepening”, with the number of people in acute need, a
staggering 27 per cent higher than last year, when it was already the most acute crisis
on the globe.

Thursday’s 2019 Humanitarian Needs Overview for Yemen report, shows that 14.3
million people are classified as being in acute need, with around 3.2 million requiring
treatment for acute malnutrition; that includes two million children under-five, and
more than one million pregnant and lactating women.

Highlighting that more than 20 million people across the country are food insecure,
half of them suffering extreme levels of hunger, the report focuses on some key
humanitarian issues: basic survival needs, protection of civilians and livelihoods and
essential basic services.

“The escalation of the conflict since March 2015 has dramatically aggravated the
protection crisis in which millions face risks to their safety and basic rights”, OCHA
reports.

The UN agency data shows that a total of 17.8 million people lack access to safe water
and sanitation, and 19.7 million lack access to adequate healthcare. Poor sanitation
and waterborne diseases, including cholera, left hundreds of thousands of people ill
last year.

Meanwhile, grain which could help feed millions, is still at risk of rotting in a key Red
Sea storage facility because conditions are too unsafe to reach it, UN Special Envoy
Martin Griffiths and UN Emergency relief chief Mark Lowcock said earlier this week.

Death toll and displaced people

During the past four years of intense conflict between Government forces and Houthi
rebels have left tens of thousands dead or injured including at least 17,700 civilians as
verified by the UN.

The agency adds that an estimated 3.3 million people remain displaced, up from 2.2
million last year, including 685,000 people who fled fighting in Hudaydah and on the
west coast, from June onwards. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the
number of sites hosting displaced people has increased by almost half over the past
12 months.

9

‘Hell’ in Yemen, with millions
‘knocking on the door of famine’

Over half the Yemen population is facing acute food shortages “with millions knocking
on the door of famine”, the UN food relief agency chief said on Wednesday, wrapping
up a two-day visit to the country with an urgent plea for peace and funding to help
feed vulnerable families.

Too weak to cry

In the capital of Sana’a, the UN official witnessed first-hand the devastating toll of
malnutrition on Yemen’s children during a hospital visit where 2.3 million under-
five, are projected to face acute malnutrition this year.
And the nearly 400,000 youngsters suffering from severe acute malnutrition are
likely to die without urgent treatment.
Mr. Beasley noted “dead silence” in children’s hospital wings as the children were
“too sick and too weak to either cry or laugh”.
“But they are still the lucky ones who were able to make it to the hospital”, Mr.
Beasley added. “Many poor families cannot afford the cost of transportation to
bring their children to hospitals or they arrive and are turned away because there
are not enough beds for their sick children.”

10

Making a difference

The WFP chief also saw the progress that
the UN agency’s biometric registration
programme is making to ensure that food
assistance is delivered in an accountable
and transparent way.

Over 16 million Yemenis are food insecure,
with nearly 50,000 already facing famine-
like conditions (IPC 5 on the official scale)
and a further five million only one step
away (IPC 4).

Against the backdrop that humanitarian
food assistance is the first line defence
against the country’s spiralling hunger, WFP is looking at all options to scale up
assistance to meet the growing needs and avert a devastating famine.

But more needs to be done for millions who are at risk of slipping further into
hunger as conflict and displacement, crippling fuel shortages, and rising food prices
makes life harder each day.

Absolute ‘hell’

As fuel reserves are nearing empty, hospitals have been left without power and the
commercial sector struggles to transport food and basic goods. This in turn forces
people to rely on the black market where jacked-up prices contribute to climbing
food costs that are well out of reach for millions.

Meanwhile, 14 fuel-carrying vessels are being held off Yemen’s Red Sea coast unable
to berth, with none having entered the Hudaydah port since 3 January.
We can make a difference here, but we need the funds to do it -- WFP chief

“This is hell. Absolutely horrendous. Yemen is becoming the worst place on earth
and it is totally man made”, said Mr. Beasley.

11

‘I am alive, but I feel like I am
dead’: a migrant grieves the

drowning of 3 children

Migrants who survived the capsizing of a
smugglers boat in the Gulf of Aden were
brought ashore in Obock in Djibouti.

Misrah, an undocumented migrant
worker, and her family, left their home
in Ethiopia hoping for a better life.
Instead, her three children are now dead,
drowned during a perilous sea crossing
across the Gulf of Aden, when the
overloaded boat smuggling them into the
country capsized.

“I have lost everything,” says Misrah,
as she struggles to recount the most
traumatic of events, witnessing the
deaths of her three children. The 27-year-
old Ethiopian woman, her husband and
children – Aziza, five; Rachar, three;
and Ikram, two – and at least 55 other
migrants and refugees were aboard a
boat controlled by smugglers crossing the
Gulf of Aden from Yemen to the Horn of
Africa via Djibouti, on 12 April.

12

‘They were too young; The plight of
the sea was too rough’ undocumented migrants

Overcrowded and travelling in the dead In 2012, Misrah left her home in
of night, the vessel capsized under the Derdawah, Ethiopia, to find work. “I
weight of its passengers. Sixteen children, wanted to take care of my family, my
including Misrah’s, and at least 44 mother and my siblings,” she explains.
migrants and refugees drowned, trapped “I managed to travel to Djibouti where I
beneath the sunken vessel. She and her worked as a maid. Thanks to the money
husband Abdul Basit were two of just 14 I earned I was able to afford to travel to
to survive. Yemen by boat.”

Speaking through a translator, Misrah Thousands of migrants from Ethiopia
musters the strength and courage to make the same journey through Djibouti
describe the moments leading up to to Yemen each year hoping to reach
the tragedy. “As we approached the Saudi Arabia, where there are better work
Djiboutian shore, the boat began to fall opportunities and higher incomes than
apart,” she recalls. “My children were back home. Others, like Misrah, intend
sleeping when the boat turned over. I to remain in Yemen where, prior to
was holding Ikram in my arms. I knew the conflict and the current pandemic,
I could swim. That is how I survived. there were opportunities for migrant
Unfortunately, it was not the case for my workers. Historically, there has always
children. They were too young; the sea been movement back and forth between
was too rough.” Yemen and the Horn of Africa.

Alone, Misrah swam to shore, making Misrah slowly built a new life in the city of
her way on foot and with the help of a Aden, finding work as a cleaner. In 2014
passing motorist to the town of Obock, she married Abdul Basit, and they started
Djibouti, where she met staff from the a family. “I liked my life in Yemen,” Misrah
International Organization for Migration’s says. When Misrah’s mother fell ill back in
(IOM) Migrant Response Centre. “I was Ethiopia, she felt compelled to return and
given a phone to call my mother and I care for her. Her husband was concerned
feel better. Later they also helped locate for Misrah’s safety. ultimately, they
my husband, who, thankfully, made it decided to travel together as a family.
back to Ethiopia,” Misrah says.
Like most undocumented migrants in the
“The staff members are taking care of me, region, they had no formal or official stay
trying to reassure me. I would like to see documents in Yemen or papers needed
my mother; she is the only one who can to return to Ethiopia, and were forced
comfort me right now.” to pay smugglers USD 400 to travel from
Yemen to Djibouti by boat, Often, this trip
can cost a lot more.

13

More violence ‘last thing Yemen
needs’, peace ‘only way’ to
resolve crises

Mark Lowcock, who also serves as Under- and other miseries are not simply
Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, ‘happening’ in Yemen”, he said, “the war is
said via videoconference that the war is imposing them”.
“ultimately behind the risk of famine, the
spread of disease and economic collapse”. A ceasefire, opening the ports and
opening Sana’a airport, would go “a
With millions of people on the brink of long way towards alleviating people’s
starvation and COVID-19 sweeping the suffering”, explained the UN official,
country, “more violence is the last thing adding that these measures could also set
Yemen needs”, he said, calling for a the country “on a path towards a more
nationwide ceasefire “right now”. sustainable peace”.

Alleviate Yemeni suffering As required under international
humanitarian law, he underscored to
The humanitarian crisis is trapping need to protect civilians while reiterating
Yemenis in a “relentless downward spiral”, the importance of humanitarian access.
Mr. Lowcock added, pointing to famine
“stalking the country”, COVID-19 pushing “Providing a needs-based, principled
the healthcare system to collapse, and response across Yemen remains a top
unabated war “making everything else priority for agencies and donors alike”,
much worse”. said the Humanitarian Coordinator.
“I want to be clear that famine, disease
A seemingly endless race

14

The humanitarian chief emphasized that Advocating for an “inclusive negotiated
aid agencies are racing to address the political settlement” to end the conflict,
most severe needs across the besieged he reminded that military conquest
country, to stop famine, to stop COVID-19 would not decisively end the war, but
and to help people in conflict areas. only fuel further violence and unrest.

“We are also racing towards a fiscal cliff”, Stem cycle of violence
he said, asserting that the UN response
plan is only 34 per cent funded. The Special Envoy said a nationwide
ceasefire would enable humanitarian
With several key donors having relief, children to safely return to school,
“drastically” cut their financial support, the opening of roads in many parts of the
underfunding remains the biggest threat country, as well as a long-awaited calm for
to the world’s largest aid operation, Mr. all Yemenis.
Lowcock said, calling on all donors to
increase funding. “Civilians…suffer the most from the
weaponization of the economy”, he said,
Economic collapse urging that Sana’a International Airport
be opened to commercial traffic, and for
Meanwhile, as the economic situation is fuel and other commodities to be allowed
accelerating the risk of famine, he cited into Yemen through the key Hudaydah
two immediate steps that can help stem ports. “Civilian needs must be prioritized
the collapse. above all else”.

Noting that Yemeni rial is still trading Finally, Mr. Griffiths emphasized the
near record lows, the relief chief said that importance of finding a peaceful
it must be strengthened and “a stable, settlement, saying that over the coming
adequate flow of commercial imports weeks he would work with the parties
through all ports” must be ensured – this to stop the fighting, address critical
is also the long-standing position of the humanitarian issues and resume the
Council. political process. I ask the international
community to redouble efforts to
support this endeavour.

Marib in the crosshairs As time is of the essence, he noted a
possible face-to-face meeting, hoping
Turning to the Houthi forces or Ansar that the participants would demonstrate
Allah’s “relentless” and “unjustifiable” the political will to chart a path forward.
military escalation around Marib, in
central Yemen, UN Special Envoy Martin The UN official warned that he “cannot
Griffiths said that for more than a month, force the parties to negotiate”, saying,
lives have been lost, including those of “that is their responsibility…their duty to
children and displaced civilians, constantly the people of Yemen”.
disrupting peace efforts.

“The longer the Marib offensive goes on,
the greater the risks to Yemen’s broader
stability and social cohesion”, he warned.

15

UN envoy highlights
diplomatic unity, as key to
help end Yemen war

The UN Special Envoy for Yemen appealed on Thursday for warring parties to
implement a nationwide ceasefire and agree a date for peace talks, in line with a plan
to end their conflict.

Briefing the Security Council, Martin not to disappoint and instead deliver
Griffiths highlighted international unity Yemen from its plight.”
in support of ending six years of fighting
between Yemeni Government forces, Silence the guns
backed by a Saudi-led coalition, and the
Ansar Allah movement, also known as Mr. Griffiths said Security Council unity is
the Houthis. reinforced by diplomatic unanimity and
specific actions on the part of several
“These arrangements will allow for a key countries, expressing gratitude
normalization of life that has all too to Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United
often, and perhaps today, seemed like a States for their support.
cruel hope for the people of Yemen,” he
said. He outlined examples of what the
agreement could potentially achieve.
“So, let us together call upon the parties

16

“The ceasefire, the nationwide ceasefire, bearing down on the country. Tens of
means that the guns will fall silent; and thousands of people are already starving
the roads long blocked by front lines to death, with another five million just a
will open progressively – not in a day, step behind them,” he said.
but in short order for the passage of
goods, humanitarian first, and then for In late March, Yemen received a first
the free movement of people; for those shipment of 360,000 COVID-19 vaccines
children to go to their schools without through the global solidarity initiative,
hindrance and for workers to return to COVAX, with another 1.6 million doses
their place of work across the lines that expected in the coming months.
have impeded that.”
A deadly month
However, the urgency for progress on
the peace front makes the ongoing Mr. Lowcock appealed for increased
conflict even more concerning, he support for pandemic response and
said, noting that the situation in Marib in other critical areas, such as civilian
is again showing “dangerous signs of protection. More than 200 people were
escalating”, while in Taiz, fighting has killed last month, making it the deadliest
increased and tensions continue to one for Yemenis so far this year.
build.
The ongoing offensive in Marib also
New COVID-19 wave threatens millions, including scores of
people displaced from other parts of the
Yemen remains the world’s largest country.
humanitarian crisis, and a second
wave of COVID-19 infections has hit the “If the fighting continues, we expect tens
population “with a new ferocity”, the of thousands – at least – more people
envoy said. will be forced to move. And that will be
very dangerous as we see the latest COVID
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Mark spike,” he said.
Lowcock, who also briefed the Council,
reported that numbers have more than A donor conference last month ended
doubled in just six weeks. with $1.7 billion in commitments for
Yemen, less than half of what is needed
“This second wave, of course, is coming for humanitarian operations this year.
at a time when large-scale famine is still Mr. Lowcock urged countries to step up.

“Of the pledges that were made, about
half have been paid,” he told the Council.

“So what that means is that today, the
response plan is less than 25 per cent
funded. So again, as I have said many
times before, without more funding,
millions of Yemenis will be staring down
a death sentence before the year reaches
its close.”

17

Faces of war and peace in Yemen

Yemenis who have been displaced by years of conflict have been sharing stories of
resilience and hope as their country endures what the UN has described as the “largest
humanitarian crisis in the world”.

Hend (age 12): “We were on the bus,
the road was very arduous, there was
bombing and we could hear the sounds
of bullets. My life has changed. I miss
my friends.”

There are some 30 million people in
Yemen; 20 million need humanitarian
assistance.

Hala, (11) “I have all my toys in
Hudaydah, a car and dolls. What I prefer
are my dolls. And my friend Maryam.

Her mother says, “if we eat breakfast,
we do not eat lunch. And if we do not
eat both meals, we eat dinner.”

The UN says Yemen is facing full-on
famine in 2021.

18

Angam (11) “We had to leave our
home in Hudaydah because of the
war. Bullets and shrapnel entered our

house, so we left.”
Two million children are unable to go

to school in Yemen.

Fatima (45) “We need to rent a room,
we cannot live inside the tent because
of the wind and heavy rain. We get wet
sometimes and this is really hard”.
There are an estimated three million
displaced people in Yemen.

Kamal (35) “My son has a heart disease.
The treatment he needs is not available

here; I bring it from Hudaydah. The
thing that I am most proud of is my son,

he keeps me going in life.”
More than 80 per cent of Yemen’s
districts are in severe need of extra

health assistance.

Fathi (48): “I have five children and now I
have no work due to my injured spine. I
don’t know how to manage all this now.”
The UN is appealing for $3.85 billion to
support humanitarian assistance

19

They fled war and violence in search of safety.
They lost their homes, family members, friends, neighbours.
They live in makeshift shelters, not knowing when they’ll be able to return home.
In Yemen, Millions of people are trapped in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

YET, THEY STAND AND HOPE FOR A BETTER FUTURE