(CNN Spanish) – As the civil war in Syria spread across the region, as the United States tried for the last time to win in Afghanistan, and as Russian-backed separatists ultimately rose in eastern Ukraine, a direct precursor to the current 2014 invasion that erupted in Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, another conflict.
This regional civil war is still ongoing almost a decade later, in the shadow of these other conflicts and almost in the background, and has already triggered a humanitarian crisis in the country that appears to be far from over.
And now the conflict is linked to the war between Israel and Hamas, which began on October 7, when the Houthi rebels increased their attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea in alleged revenge against Israel, and the United States and the United Kingdom responded. with a series of attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen.
But how did it start, who are they facing and what is its relationship to Gaza?
Houthi fighters monitor the reopening of a road in Saada, north of Sanaa, February 16, 2010, following a ceasefire between rebels and government forces. (Source: AFP via Getty Images)
Yemen is located on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula with coasts on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and borders Saudi Arabia and Oman.
With a population of around 30 million people where Sunni Islam predominates, Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East, according to the World Bank.
The beginning of the civil war in Yemen
For much of the 20th and 21st centuries, the country was affected by political instability and violence, and from the 2000s onwards the situation was initially worsened by the presence of al-Qaeda cells – the so-called Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which prompted a US attack. military drone use – and then with the uprising of the Houthis, a Shiite minority that comes from the north of the country and demanded greater representation in the Sunni-led government in 2014.
A Yemeni army tank moves into position during clashes with Houthi rebels in Saada, north of Sanaa, February 11, 2010. (Source: AFP via Getty Images)
In mid-2014, the Houthis staged a series of protests against Yemeni President Abdurabu Hadi that resulted in violence. And in January 2015, rebels seized the presidential palace in the capital Sanaa, forcing Yemen's internationally recognized and U.S.-backed government to move to Aden.
Subsequently, a coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia intervened militarily in favor of the Yemeni government and against the Houthis, who are supported by Iran. In addition, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula continues its operations and forms a third faction.
The war in Yemen has been described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis and is viewed as both a civil war that nearly collapsed the country and a larger confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
It has certainly crossed borders and developed into a regional conflict, with Houthi attacks on targets in Saudi Arabia and constant bombardments of Houthi-controlled areas by the Arab coalition, which includes the United Arab Emirates, causing it cause enormous suffering for the civilian population.
Smoke rises after an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition in the capital Sanaa on May 11, 2015. (Source: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP via Getty Images)
The conflict in Yemen today
The stagnant war continues today and in January 2022, a Saudi-led coalition bombing of a detention center in the city of Saada killed at least 67 people, Save the Children spokesman Amjad told CNN. Yamin.
The bombing came after the Houthis formally claimed responsibility for an attack in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, that killed three people a week earlier, Saudi state agency Al-Ekhbariya said.
But although the year began with violence, the parties agreed in April to a national ceasefire brokered by the United Nations and the United States – the first since 2016 – to allow the delivery of fuel and humanitarian aid to regions controlled by the Houthis . .
The ceasefire, which initially lasted two months, was welcomed by Saudi Arabia and Iran and extended until October. It was the most important peace initiative since the war began in 2014, which, despite its end, opened the door to new negotiations between the Houthis, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
The connection with Gaza
But although the intensity of Yemen's civil war appears to have waned in recent months, tensions escalated again after the Houthis began attacking merchant ships in the Red Sea shortly after the war began in Gaza.
The Houthis have publicly supported Palestinians in the past and organized anti-Israel protests in Yemen. On October 19, just two weeks after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that sparked the war, a U.S. warship shot down ballistic missiles and drones fired from Yemen toward Israel.
Since then, there have been further launches and attacks on merchant ships as well as the deployment of Israeli and US warships in the Red Sea.
On Thursday, the United States and the United Kingdom launched strikes against several Houthi targets in areas controlled by the group in Yemen. This was a significant response after the Biden administration and its allies warned that the Iran-backed militant group would suffer the consequences of repeated drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The Houthi attacks also come in parallel with the actions of another Iran-backed group, Hezbollah, in Lebanon, while fighting continues in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, Iran's enemy.
The Cost of the War in Yemen
According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), more than 150,000 people have died as a result of the conflict since 2015, including 14,500 civilians. Although ACLED has noted a downward trend in violence in recent years, levels remain high.
The humanitarian crisis, however, is unprecedented. According to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), an estimated 20 million people in Yemen suffer from hunger and malnutrition out of a total population of 30 million.
The general situation in the country has become more complex due to the spread of Covid-19, which is putting greater strain on the health system.
In addition, nearly 4 million people have become internally displaced, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Unocha).
“Although Yemen already had vulnerabilities, the increasing duration of the conflict has led to economic collapse, increased poverty and the collapse of national social protection systems and community safety nets,” Unocha said.
Editor's note: This article was originally published in December 2023 and updated in January 2024.
With reports from Hakim Almasmar, Judith Vonberg, Nima Elbagir, Ryan Browne, Nadeen Ebrahim, Nada Altaher, Bianca Britton, Celine Alkhaldi, Mostafa Salem, Haley Britzky and Lianne Kolirin.