Yemeni men inspect a destroyed house allegedly targeted by Saudi-led air strikes in Sanaa, Yemen, 08 March 2018. Hani Al-Ansi/Press Association. All rights reserved. The Yemeni people have now coped with a full-scale war for three full years! While this anniversary marks the beginning of the air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition, the war has many other features. Ground fighting between what was then the Saleh-Huthi alliance and those of the Hadi regime started a few weeks before the internationalisation of the war, and it was the threat of a complete takeover of Hadi’s interim capital, Aden, which prompted the coalition intervention.
So where are we now? What is the impact of this war on the 29 million Yemenis? What are the prospects for the coming year? This two–part article addresses first the apparently irresistible rise of the Huthi movement and its prospects. Part two will look at the humanitarian situation, people’s survival strategies, and current prospects for a solution.
The failure of Saleh’s plans
In Sana’a the Saleh-Huthi alliance is terminated, with extreme prejudice for Saleh himself whom the Huthis killed on 4 December 2017. An alliance contre nature at the best of times, the struggle for supremacy between the two groups defined their relationship since its start: tensions increased and deepened over time as the Huthi movement grew in strength at the expense of Saleh’s military.
