The anti-democratic and sectarian bigots who run Saudi Arabia are engaged in a war on Yemen that — given its careless, arrogant, brutal attitude towards Yemen’s civilian population — amounts to a war crime.
The Saudis have been bombing Yemen since 25 March, the day the Saudi-backed President, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, fled the country.
Hadi left quickly as a renewed offensive by an alliance of Houthi fighters from north Yemen and supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh overran government held towns and military units. There is no central state and there are now multiple battle fronts, especially in the South where the Houthi army is attempting to take the port city of Aden.
2,000 people have been killed and a million have been displaced by the civil war and Saudi bombing. The Saudis have ramped up civilian misery by attempting to impose a tight land, sea and air blockade.
90% of Yemen’s food was imported. Now only 15% of the pre-crisis volume is getting through.
The UN estimates that 20 million people – from a population of around 25 million – need humanitarian help; up to five million regularly go without food for days at a time. Two-thirds of the population – perhaps 16 million people - now have no regulated access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
Even the British and US military, which have been backing the Saudi war, seem to be advocating a less brutal blockade.
All the external forces in this conflict are taking positions based on general foreign policy concerns, rather than what is in the best interests of the Yemeni people. The Saudis are determined that the Houthis – who are Zaidis, a dissident Shia sect which makes up 40% of Yemen’s population - will never take power, under any circumstances; they do not care how much damage they have to do to stop the Houthis. The US and UK are concerned to stop a refugee crisis in Yemen that they fear will spill over into Somalia (there are half a million Somali refugees in Yemen who might return, as well as Yeminis fleeing the violence) and destabilise Somalia.
In the East and South East of Yemen al-Qaeda is growing. Sunni tribes are being drawn into alliances with al-Qaeda in opposition to the advancing Houthis. Islamic State has also started to operate in Yemen, organising a series of sectarian bombings of Shia mosques; hundreds of Shia have died in attacks in recent months. Yemen, traditionally relatively tolerant, is now experiencing a new and raw tension between Sunni and Shia Muslims.
Last weekend Saleh’s troops launched an offensive into southern Saudi Arabia and the Houthis launched at least one Scud missile into Saudi territory.
The UK should stop backing Saudia Arabia. Stop this war!
