A recent U.S. military raid in Yemen killed more than a dozen civilians, drawing the Gulf nation back into international headlines. But foreign airstrikes are not the country’s main concern. Its civil war is approaching its second anniversary and millions face food insecurity and malnutrition. Has Yemen become the world’s forgotten conflict?
CGTN’s Jim Spellman reports.
Follow Jim Spellman on Twitter @jimspellmanTV
The ongoing civil war pits Houthi rebels, aligned with Iran against the Saudi and U.S. backed forces aligned with President Mansour Hadi. The Houthis ousted Hadi in a coup back in 2015. He is currently living in Saudi Arabia.
Neither side has been able to decisively win the war and peace talks have stalled.
Several ceasefires have been brokered by the U.N. in the past but they have failed to hold. Adding to the chaos is the presences of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The terror group has grown in Yemen over the last several years especially after crackdowns in Saudi Arabia made it hard for the group to operate there.
Tonight’s panel discusses the civil war in Yemen:
- Nadwa Al-Dawsari, nonresident senior fellow at the Project on Middle East Democracy
- Baraa Shiban, a Yemen project director for Reprieve
- Gareth Porter, American historian and independent investigative journalist
Also looming for Yemen is a humanitarian crisis. The United Nations reports the death toll is 10 thousand and rising. More than 3 million people are displaced. And now, the international humanitarian body is calling for more than $2 billion to fight an impending famine.
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W/ bipartisan group of senators, I've called on @POTUS to provide more info regarding US raid in Yemen. https://t.co/oUIVx4OtlZ pic.twitter.com/6FR8eco5Yi
— U.S. Senator Al Franken (@SenFranken) February 10, 2017
We are on the ground in #Yemen where war has left 19 million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. https://t.co/5Nkoe5HRpX pic.twitter.com/VItMGC65st
— UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) February 13, 2017