Saudi Arabian-led Conflict In Yemen

By: Drew Ronning

Children running and playing in city streets, harboring their futures with hope and glee, this is how children are made to be. Ever since 2016, the children of Yemen haven’t been able to feel this. In constant fear of their home bursting into a warzone, their families being taken from them, and most important; hunger. Who is at fault for causing the innocent civilians of Yemen to suffer so greatly? Who would fund such a terrible cause with seemingly no end to the suffering of men, women, and children alike?

This topic is something that is commonly overlooked and disregarded, a war between a rebel group that overthrow the powers of Yemen, and the Saudi Arabian military which has been fighting them since 2016. A topic like this is something that needs to be talked about rather than forgotten, especially for us since our dollars are funding this war leaving over half of all Yemenis in starvation. The U.S. U.K. and France are all funding the war through money, technical assistance, and firearm sales to them, turning a blind eye to the war crimes that the Saudi military is actively committing. 

The Saudi Arabian promoted candidate to run for the president of Yemen ended up being the only candidate by the end of the voting, obviously being a very corrupt system a group of the people of Yemen decided to fight against the tyrannical president and overthrow him, these people are referred to as the Houthi rebels. Tens of thousands of citizens have died from the acts of Saudi Arabia using landmines and artillery in civilian areas, let alone the unreported death from starvation and disease as Saudi Arabia has cut off a majority of humanitarian access to Yemen, hospitals, food resources, clean water are all a valuable commodity in Yemen due to Saudi Arabia cutting off their supply in an attempt to kill and dissuade the Haithi, however, it is causing much more suffering from the over 30 million innocent civilians who cannot eat, drink or rest as their home is turned into a warzone because of Saudi Arabia attempting to put a political leader whom they control into power by killing their competition and forcing him to take power over all of Yemen. The Houthi were in a position in which their drastic measures are relatively useful, however as the war has waged on and Iran has backed these rebels more and more civilians keep dying needlessly, as the U.S. support Saudi Arabia’s decision and supply them with weapons and logistics to defeat the rebels which are resulting in many civilian deaths, this is a war in which there will be no winner only deaths.

The purpose of this war is that Saudi Arabia wishes to completely take over Yemen in order to construct a new pipeline that allows Saudi Arabia to not have a dependency on their expensive shipping straits for oil, their original plan was to put in a political shell to allow them to build the new pipeline however the Houthi rebels very much didn’t like the tyrannical style of Saudi Arabia trying to essentially put a leader of theirs into Yemen to control their politics and threw out the new president and assumed control. This leads to the Houthis goals, they wish for Yemen to not be underdeveloped and marginalized as well as establish a more democratic and political system in Yemen, they are fighting to secure Yemen from Saudi Arabia but are only capable of defending it as the Saudi army brutally attacks them.

The importance of the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen is definitely about the crimes against humanity that have been committed by Saudi Arabia, they have cut off as much humanitarian aid to the civilians and Houthi as possible making starvation, dehydration, and disease the normal for all men, women and importantly children of Yemen as they continue to bomb and destroy infrastructure and housing. Their known crimes include; arbitrary deprivation of life and other unlawful or politically motivated killings, torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, and deplorable prison and detention center conditions. Saudi Arabia commits these acts on a daily basis not only to the Houthi rebels but to the innocents of Yemen with no repercussions, they’ve been committing these acts continuously for over 8 years. The horrible acts of the Saudi army go not only unpunished but are supported by the U.S. and the U.K. through firearm sales.

The Saudi Arabian-led intervention into Yemen has been a war with seemingly no end with war crimes, murder, and horrific acts as children die in horrific conditions while we profit and turn a blind eye. In this story, we are evil.