Al Jazera :
Yemen is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises as the brutal war there enters its eighth year.The UN estimates the war has killed 377,000 people as of the end of 2021, both directly and indirectly through hunger and disease – 70 percent of those deaths are children.
Nearly half the country (14.5 million) of 30 million people do not have enough food, according to the World Food Programme. Nearly half (47.5 percent) of the children under five face chronic malnutrition. At least 4 million people displaced have been displaced by the seven years of war.
In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition – backed by the United States – intervened militarily in Yemen in a bid to fight the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government, and reverse what they say is growing Iranian influence in the region.
The Houthi armed group made international headlines after seizing control of Saada province in early 2014. They later moved southwards to seize the capital Sanaa and demanded constitutional change and power-sharing with the government. This forced Yemen’s Hadi to flee his presidential palace in Aden for Saudi Arabia.
Amid the instability, several other armed groups emerged, including al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the UAE-backed separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), and others. The Houthis – also known as Ansar Allah – are a movement of mostly Zaidi Shia Muslims from Northern Yemen who opposed Hadi’s government and are believed to be supported by Iran.
Years of UN-brokered peace talks have failed to break the deadlock.
Seven years since the launch of the Saudi-led campaign, the bulk of Yemen’s northern highlands, as well as Sanaa, remain under the control of Houthi rebels.
The mountainous country between the Horn of Africa and the Middle East shares a 1,300km (800-mile) border with Saudi Arabia. Along its west coast is the Bab el-Mandeb Strait (“Gate of Tears” in Arabic), a vital shipping corridor through which much of the world’s maritime trade passes.
In the south is the port city of Aden, which was captured by the STC in 2019. Aden is the temporary home of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
