I t was a scene of destruction in Yemen’s second city: pieces of clothing and sandals strewn around and blood staining the ground. A suicide bomber had blown himself up amidst crowds of soldiers waiting to collect their pay in Aden, killing at least 49 people and wounding dozens; only the latest in a string of deadly attacks rocking the port city located at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula. Not long after, a local Islamic State (IS) affiliate claimed responsibility.
The rise of IS, still junior to al-Qaeda in the country, is only one of the major problems Yemen will continue to face in 2017. The conflict between a Saudi-led coalition and rebel forces allied with those loyal to a former longtime ruler has according to some estimates cost around 10,000 lives and has triggered an economic and humanitarian crisis which persists until this day. Over 18 million people are in need of humanitarian and protection assistance, the UN says. Seven million people are enduring hunger and the health system is on the verge of “collapse”, according to the Disasters Emergency Committee.
Despite all this the war has often dropped off the Western media’s radar and Yemenis lament that while there was international outrage about the destruction of heritage sites in Iraq and Syria, the world has been largely quiet about the bombardment of Yemen’s rich cultural heritage.
Western involvement in the conflict and the issue of complicity was raised yet again at the end of the year as the coalition led by Riyadh for the first time admitted to having used UK-made cluster bombs, which were provided in the 1980s. Saudi Arabia’s Western allies, including the US, have come under increasing pressure over their support for the coalition due to reports of civilian casualties. The West, however, is also in need of allies as they face challenges in the region emanating from Iran and Russia, Yemen analyst Fernando Carvajal noted.
What’s in store for 2017? “Even as the UN special envoy makes a move to launch a new round of talks... the focus remains on the battlefield,” Mr. Carvajal told The World Weekly, adding that Riyadh saw a political solution which would sacrifice President Hadi and its own interests as “capitulation”.
Speaking to TWW from Sanaa, Taha Yaseen, head of media for the Mwatana Organisation for Human Rights, said: “If the conflict has not come to a cessation in 2017 as Yemenis hope, and exacerbates more, Yemen is apparently and unfortunately going to enter a new level in the same cycle of human rights violations and intolerable humanitarian conditions.”
