For Yemen, 2020 has been an apocalyptic year, which has exceeded even the worst forecasts for a country that has in recent years been ravaged by war and humanitarian disaster.
The rapprochement between the Houthis – a political and armed movement that controls two-thirds of the population of Yemen’s population – and Saudi Arabia at the end of 2019 was viewed with some optimism, yet new clashes have since broken out across the country. Even the outbreak of COVID-19 did not stop the violence. As a result of new clashes, more than 18,600 people died between 1 January and 5 December 2020, according the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).
In a 2018 interview, Robert Malley, who led the Middle East desk of the US’s National Security Council during the Obama administration, recognised that the disastrous consequences of the military intervention by the Saudi coalition was a “very likely outcome”. He said: “it was the poorest country [Yemen], to begin with, being bombed by the wealthiest country in the region [Saudi Arabia]”.
