Demonstrating for the release of detainees in Yemen's youth revolution, 2013. Demotix/Luke Somers. All rights reserved. Yemen has never been a staple of the western media. It did pop up on the news when in a leadership shift à la Arab Spring, Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down in February 2012 as president after thirty-three years as strongman. In January this year Yemen came back to our screens when the Houtis, a Zaidi Shiite group, seized control of the government. In response, a Sunni Saudi-led, US-backed coalition started bombing the south of the country in March to neutralize the insurgents. Amidst the confusion and vanished institutions, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State (IS) affiliate in the region strengthened their foothold in this corner of the Middle East.
This chain of events has brought to Yemen a humanitarian disaster. According to UNOCHA, the UN’s humanitarian agency, over 84% (21.1 million) of Yemenis cannot meet basic needs such as food, water, and medical supplies. Almost 1.5 million Yemenis have been forced out of their homes. Since March more than 5,600 people have been killed, around of whom 2,700 are civilians.
This situation has been worsened by a maritime blockade engineered by the Saudi-led coalition to cut supplies to the Houtis. Yemen is now hardly importing any food or fuel, the latter essential to keep generators, ambulances and water pumps working. After a visit to Yemen in August, Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said, “Yemen in five months is like Syria after five years […] the world needs to wake up to what is going on.” Yet media coverage of Yemen, in particular of its dire humanitarian situation, remains shamefully scant. But why is that?
