Yemeni Civil War

#GS 02 International Relations

Yemen:

Yemen officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in Western Asia.
It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast and shares maritime borders with Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia.
Yemen is the second-largest Arab sovereign state in the peninsula.

The eight-year-old conflict is between the internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, and Houthi rebels supported by Iran.
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when Houthi insurgents took control of Yemen’s capital and largest city, Sana’a, demanding lower fuel prices and a new government.
Beginning in March 2015, a coalition of Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia launched a campaign of economic isolation and air strikes against the Houthi insurgents, with S. logistical and intelligence support.

The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah (Partisans of God), are an Iranian-backed, Shiite Muslim military and political movement in Yemen.
The movement was founded in the 1990s by Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, a member of Yemen’s Shia majority.
Its members, who subscribe to the minority Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam, advocate regional autonomy for Zaidis in northern Yemen.

The country’s humanitarian crisis is said to be among the worst in the world, due to widespread hunger, disease, and attacks on civilians.
The conflict has displaced more than four million people and given rise to cholera outbreaks, medicine shortages, and threats of famine.
The intervention of regional powers in Yemen’s conflict threatens to draw the country into a larger Sunni-Shia
As per UNICEF reports more than 11,000 children have been killed or wounded in the conflict in Yemen since 2015
Separate from the ongoing civil war, the United States continues counterterrorism operations in Yemen, mainly by airstrikes to target al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Islamic State.