People stand on the ruins of a building destroyed in an airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen, Aug. 25, 2017. Picture by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images. All rights reserved. Last month, a 329-page report tabled at the UN Security Council by a panel of experts on Yemen was made publicly available. The report announces that “after three years of conflict, Yemen, as a State, has all but ceased to exist”. “The authority of the legitimate Government of Yemen has now eroded to the point,” the report continues, “that it is doubtful whether it will ever be able to reunite Yemen as a single country.”
The existing “threats to peace, security, and stability of Yemen” listed in the report hint to the Hobbesian “state of nature.” The authority of the legitimate government is not only challenged in the north. It is also struggling to assert itself in the south, where the Southern Transitional Council (STC) has recently been formed. The STC seeks an independent South Yemen. And of course, the Huthis in the north “have now taken unilateral control of all State institutions within their territory.” The report goes on to mention the proxy groups funded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in addition to terrorist outfits such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State.
Yemen seems to be in a state of disarray. There are multiple enemies fighting the government but also fighting one another, and making the revival of the state almost impossible. The erosion of the Yemeni state and its authority is exemplified by the proliferation of different forces, which in turn have been inflicting death, pain, and suffering on innocent Yemenis.
