Schwerpunkte / Key aspects
Kursiv: Siehe Teil 2 / In Italics: Look in part 2: https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-836b-yemen-war-mosaic-836b
Klassifizierung / Classification
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
cp2 Allgemein / General
cp2a Allgemein: Saudische Blockade / General: Saudi blockade
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
cp6 Separatisten und Aden-Regierung im Südjemen / Separatists and Aden government in Southern Yemen
cp7 UNO und Friedensgespräche / UN and peace talks
cp8 Saudi-Arabien / Saudi Arabia
cp9 USA
cp9a USA-Iran Krise: Spannungen am Golf / US-Iran crisis: Tensions at the Gulf
cp9b Beziehungen der USA zu Saudi-Arabien und den VAE / US-Saudi and UAE relations
cp10 Großbritannien / Great Britain
cp11 Deutschland / Germany
cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries
cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade
cp13b Kulturerbe / Cultural heritage
cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy
cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism
cp15 Propaganda
cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War
cp18 Kampf um Hodeidah / Hodeidah battle
cp19 Sonstiges / Other
Klassifizierung / Classification
***
**
*
(Kein Stern / No star)
? = Keine Einschatzung / No rating
A = Aktuell / Current news
B = Hintergrund / Background
C = Chronik / Chronicle
D = Details
E = Wirtschaft / Economy
H = Humanitäre Fragen / Humanitarian questions
K = Krieg / War
P = Politik / Politics
pH = Pro-Houthi
pS = Pro-Saudi
T = Terrorismus / Terrorism
Für wen das Thema ganz neu ist / Who is new to the subject
(B K P)
Year in Review by Yemen Alliance Committee
(* B H K)
Warum Jemens Kinder sterben
Jemens sechsmonatiger Waffenstillstand hätte am 2. Oktober 2022 verlängert werden sollen. Doch die beiden Bürgerkriegsparteien, die international anerkannte Regierung, die von einer durch Saudi-Arabien geführten Militärkoalition unterstützt wird, und die mit dem Iran alliierten Huthi-Rebellen konnten oder wollten sich nicht einigen.
Den von der Uno geförderten Friedensverhandlungen zum Trotz dürfte der Stellvertreterkrieg im Süden der Arabischen Halbinsel weitergehen. Nicht zuletzt auch, weil die Führer auf beiden Seiten vom Status quo finanziell profitieren.
Auch die humanitäre Katastrophe im ärmsten Land der arabischen Welt, eine der schlimmsten weltweit, dürfte andauern.
Drei von vier Jemeniten brauchen heute humanitäre Hilfe und Schutz. Krankheiten wie zum Beispiel die Cholera grassieren, und von einer Bevölkerung, bestehend aus etwa 30 Millionen Menschen, sind vier Millionen im Landesinneren auf der Flucht. Ein Grund für die Misere ist die jahrelange Land-, See- und Luftblockade Jemens, welche die Streitkräfte der Koalition nach Ausbruch des Krieges im September 2014, dem Einmarsch der Huthi in der Hauptstadt Sanaa und der späteren Vertreibung der Regierung unter Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi verhängt hatten.
Die 42-jährige jemenitische Autorin und Aktivistin Bushra al-Maktari kämpft unerschrocken gegen das Vergessen und dokumentiert die Stimmen von Betroffenen.
Sumaiyya Ahmed Saeed
Bushra al-Maktari erzählt die Geschichte von Sumaiyya Ahmed Saeedd aus der Stadt Taiz im Südwesten Jemens. Huthi-Milizionäre beschossen eine Gruppe von Kindern, die vor einem Laden spielten, der ihrem Mann Muhammad Qasim Rashid al-Khadami gehörte. Drei ihrer Kinder starben, der achtjährige Usaid, die sechsjährige Rahma und der zweijährige Ezzedine. Auch ihr 50-jähriger Schwiegervater Ahmed Ali Qasim Rashid a-Khadami sowie mehrere Kinder aus der Nachbarschaft kamen ums Leben.
«Was macht meine Geschichte besonders?», fragt Sumaiyya: «Es ist das Gleiche für Tausende von Frauen, die ihre Kinder im Krieg verloren haben. In jedem Haus dieser Stadt gibt es eine Geschichte, die zur Ruhe gelegt werden will und die niemand wieder wecken soll. Ich bin die ganze Zeit in diesem Raum geblieben, der auf die Gassen hinausgeht, und von diesem Fenster aus habe ich das Quietschen und Schreien der Kinder gehört, Spielkameradinnen und Spielkameraden meiner Kinder, die weiterlebten, als hätte sich nichts verändert. Das Leben um mich herum geht weiter und kümmert sich nicht um mich – um mich, deren Kinder der Krieg genommen und nur die Erinnerung an sie gelassen hat.»
Und sie fährt fort: «Ich besuche meine Kinder auf dem Friedhof, wenn immer ich kann, aber ich bin noch nicht überzeugt, dass sie tot sind. In der Erinnerung zu leben ist schmerzhaft, weil du realisierst, dass sie, was immer du tust, genau das geworden sind – Erinnerungen, aber nicht mehr das wirkliche Leben.»
Fatale Rolle der USA
Schon einen Monat nach Kriegsbeginn hatte die «New York Times» im April 2015 einen Leitartikel unter dem Titel «Katastrophe im Jemen» veröffentlicht. Damals sprach die Statistik von 1’000 getöteten Zivilisten, mehr als 4’000 Verwundeten und 150’000 Vertriebenen. Mit jedem Tag, so das Blatt, steuere der Jemen, eh schon ein schwacher Staat, auf den Kollaps zu.
Ein Teil der Schuld trifft auch die USA. Bereits die Regierung Barack Obamas unterstützte Saudi-Arabien mit Geheimdiensterkenntnissen und taktischen Ratschlägen. Und im vergangenen Sommer hat es US-Präsident Joe Biden bei seinem Besuch in Riad versäumt, das Königreich dazu zu drängen, sich intensiver um einen Frieden im Jemen zu bemühen – nicht eben Ausdruck einer «aktiven, auf Prinzipien beruhenden amerikanischen Führungsrolle» im Nahen Osten, derer sich das Weisse Haus rühmt. «Eine politische Lösung (im Jemen) zu finden, wird nicht leicht sein», hat die «Times» prophezeit: «Vielleicht ist es sogar ein Ding der Unmöglichkeit.»
https://www.journal21.ch/artikel/warum-jemens-kinder-sterben
(* B H K P)
Audio: Yemen’s Forgotten War
More than 2000 civilians have been killed since a coalition led by Saudi Arabia began bombing Yemen. The UN is warning of war crimes on both sides and a humanitarian crisis.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p032nmyt
Film: https://twitter.com/bbcworldservice/status/1607391749630042113
(B H K)
Der vergessene Krieg im Jemen geht ins neunte Jahr
Die ohnehin schlimme Lage für die Menschen im arabischen Bürgerkriegsland Jemen hat Russlands Invasion in der Ukraine noch verschärft. Und ein Ende der menschlichen Katastrophe ist nicht in Sicht [nur im Abo]
https://www.badische-zeitung.de/der-vergessene-krieg-im-jemen-geht-ins-neunte-jahr--234926979.html
cp1 Am wichtigsten / Most important
(** B P)
How Huthi-Saudi Negotiations Will Make or Break Yemen
Why does it matter? A Huthi-Saudi compact is preferable to renewed hostilities. But if it is poorly conceived, too generous to the Huthis or simply infeasible, as previous proposals have been, it may embolden the Huthis to shirk negotiations, push other parties to act as spoilers or lead to a messier phase of combat.
What should be done? Yemen’s anti-Huthi factions are despondent about the Huthi-Saudi negotiations, from which they are excluded. If the UN were to start discussions aimed at an inclusive political settlement, it would likely find considerable buy-in. The Saudis should ensure that any agreement with the Huthis funnels negotiations back in the UN’s direction.
The truce-without-a-truce is the product of hard-driving Huthi bargaining aimed at extracting the maximum benefit from negotiations with Saudi Arabia while cutting out their foes in the PLC and making few, if any, concessions of their own. It was eleventh-hour Huthi demands that blew up UN efforts to expand the six-month moratorium on fighting in late September
For now, however, neither side seems ready to return to war. For all their bluster, the Huthis may recognise that renewed fighting would be costly, not least because of the tight economic constraints they face. The PLC’s forces, for their part, are poorly positioned to go back to battle. Angered by the Huthi attacks on oil export facilities, their main source of income, and perhaps unnerved by Huthi-Saudi negotiations in which they have no say, PLC officials have publicly and privately mooted a return to war. But the council, formed in April to replace Yemen’s internationally recognised President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi as the country’s executive authority, has struggled to unify its ranks.
Most importantly, talks over another truce are under way, albeit mainly as direct Huthi-Saudi negotiations rather than UN-led ones. In what appears to be a sign of desire to end its role in Yemen’s civil war, Riyadh continues to parley with the Huthis despite their attacks on oil and gas export infrastructure. The Huthis, too, appear to be striking a more conciliatory tone with the Saudis, both in private and in public. Riyadh and Sanaa have not yet found a middle ground, however, due to mismatched negotiating styles and incompatible demands. The Huthis are pushing for a detailed written agreement that fulfils their demands – notably an end to restrictions on Sanaa airport and Hodeida seaport and payment of all state salaries, including to their military and security services (in exchange for an extended truce), and that the Saudis withdraw from the war, cease supporting the PLC and pay the Huthis for reconstruction (for an end to the war) – while the Saudis seek an understanding on a path to ending the war, and hesitate to commit to anything in writing. Each assumes that the other will acquiesce, sooner or later.
The Huthi-Saudi track presents a potential quandary for the UN and other international players seeking to end Yemen’s war. It has long been clear that a Huthi-Saudi understanding of some kind is necessary for bringing hostilities to a close. Indeed, the Huthis are adamant that only a bilateral agreement between the Saudis and themselves, and not talks with the PLC, can stop the fighting. They do envision dialogue with their domestic opponents, but only after the Saudis have withdrawn military and financial support for these forces. The rebels appear to see the negotiations as an opportunity to advance their idea of peace: not multiparty UN-brokered talks that lead to a genuine settlement, but a deal with the Saudis that excludes all other Yemeni factions. That is what the Huthis’ rivals most fear.
The UN faces two central challenges. First, it must ensure that Huthi-Saudi talks go ahead but disabuse the rebels of the notion that they can avoid dialogue with their rivals. It must also make clear that international legitimacy for all parties hinges on participation in UN-led talks. Secondly, it must convince the Huthis to return to those talks before the PLC either collapses or unites behind a return to war. Pulling off these tasks will be no mean feat.
Conclusion
Not for the first time, Yemen is at an inflection point. A narrow window of opportunity may soon emerge to nudge the country toward a political process. Or the conflict parties may calculate – wrongly – that they stand to benefit from renewed fighting. While the pitfalls of the first scenario are plain, it is still preferable to more months or years of bloodshed that produce more suffering but little change in the balance of power on the ground – by International Crisis Group
and a new report on this matter:
(* B P)
MBS calls for security guarantees from Yemen: report
A Lebanese newspaper has claimed that the Saudi Crown Prince has sent a message to Yemen's Ansarullah movement calling for security guarantees from the Sana'a government.
The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar has reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent a message to Yemen's Ansarullah movement telling them, "Yemen is for you. Riyadh only wants security guarantees."
The newspaper further claimed that "According to the information received from Sana'a, Riyadh has shown a lot of flexibility in the recent negotiations, which are held with the Sultanate of Oman's mediation. The Saudi authorities have implicitly declared that they no longer seek to gain control over Yemen and only want to receive security guarantees that the Sana'a government will not attack Saudi Arabia in the future."
According to the report, this message was given by Riyadh to Ansarullah after the leaders of the Yemeni movement warned during the recent talks that if the unresolved issues (like the blockade) in Yemen remain, they would return to the battlefield in the near future.
Accordingly, the Sana'a government authorities had warned the Saudis that they would never allow the current situation in which "there is no war no peace" to continue and that they will definitely take a serious decision in that regard soon.
https://en.mehrnews.com/news/195836/MBS-calls-for-security-guarantees-from-Yemen-report = https://www.islamtimes.org/en/news/1034342/mbs-calls-for-security-guarantees-from-yemen-report
(** B K P)
A Dark Year Despite the Truce: Press briefing on the human rights situation in Yemen in 2022 (January 2023)
It has documented at least 1066 incidents of violations against civilians and civilian objects, some of which amount to war crimes. At least 388 civilians were killed, including 134 children and 19 women, and not less than 880 civilians were injured, including 383 children and 70 women, these incidents caused widespread damage to vital infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and service facilities. Mwatana for Human Rights said in its annual briefing on the human rights situation in Yemen for 2022.
Mwatana also stated that Ansar Allah armed group “Houthis” backed by Iran, the Saudi/UAE-led coalition, the internationally recognized Yemeni government, and UAE-backed forces, including the Southern Transitional Council (STC), have failed to spare civilians serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. In particular, during the entry into force of the truce in early April 2022.
Mwatana has field researchers in 17 Yemeni governorates, who collected data by conducting more than (2183) interviews with victims, victims’ families, eyewitnesses, and medical and humanitarian workers. Mwatana researchers obtained informed consent from survivors and eyewitnesses. This field research relied on collecting physical evidence, including medical reports, identification certificates, and photographs of weapon remnants. Mwatana received testimonies and information independently and securely from its primary and reliable sources, and worked to preserved the data confidential.
Parties to the conflict in Yemen have a disgraceful human rights record. They have committed widespread and systematic violations, including killing and injuring tens of thousands of civilians, destroying vital infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, practicing arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, denying access to humanitarian aid, recruiting and using children, occupying schools and hospitals, assaulting health and humanitarian workers, using starvation as a method of warfare, suppressing journalists and media professionals, and restricting public and personal rights and freedoms.
This press briefing reviews most of the human rights violations documented by Mwatana in 2022. However, the figures in this annual briefing are preliminary and aim to provide an overview of the most prominent patterns of violations that affected civilians in 2022. Mwatana continues to document a number of other incidents that took place in 2022, in order to publish a detailed annual report on the human rights situation later in 2023.
https://mwatana.org/en/annualbreif2022/
(*** B K P)
Understanding Military Units in Southern Yemen
This analysis examines the relationships and allegiances that shape interactions between armed groups in southern Yemen, specifically in Abyan, Aden, Dhaleh, and Lahij governorates. These southern Yemeni armed groups not only fight the Iran-aligned Houthi movement but also support ongoing US-backed counterterrorism efforts against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State in Yemen (IS-Yemen).
Anti-Houthi forces in southern Yemen are part of a formal command structure, but their commanders respond to informal networks defined by personal relationships and political allegiances. Many commanders draw their allegiances from one of two major factions that existed during the 1986 South Yemen civil war and 1994 Yemeni civil war. The secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) is the most influential political organization in Abyan, Aden, Dhaleh, and Lahij. Most STC-backed commanders today were part of the Southern Movement after 1994. Other commanders likely joined the STC to secure a share of funding from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for STC-backed groups after 2015. The UAE began funding armed groups in southern Yemen in 2015 to retake Aden from the Houthis, and it remains heavily involved in southern Yemeni security and political dynamics.[1]
Competition between southern Yemeni factions undermines cooperation within ROYG, imperiling both anti-Houthi and anti-AQAP operations in Yemen. The Saudi-led coalition has attempted to formalize command structures to stop this competition in recent years, but animosity between commanders and factions impedes security sector reform. The 2019 Riyadh Agreement forced the STC’s president to subordinate STC-backed armed groups to the ROYG’s Defense and Interior Ministries officially.[2] STC leaders outside of the formal chain of command remain influential within the UAE-backed southern Yemeni military apparatus, however.[3] This dynamic affects the Yemeni Military and Security Committee, a 59-member body that the Saudi-led coalition helped form in 2022. A southern commander and former defense minister leads this committee, which is responsible for security sector reform.[4] Some ROYG factions believe the STC has compromised the committee, and the STC has sought to exploit the committee for political gain.[5]
Analysis
The STC, a UAE-backed political organization seeking southern independence, is the most influential coordinator of armed groups in Abyan, Aden, Dhaleh, and Lahij.The STC is a political organization with control over some military forces in southern Yemen. These STC-backed forces are part of the ROYG, but they often compete with ROYG-backed forces. The STC has secessionist aims but cooperates with other Yemeni factions for the time being, mainly due to Saudi pressure.[6] The formation of the Presidential Leadership Council, which nominally brought together STC President Aydarous al Zubaidi and other leaders across political divides to lead the ROYG in April 2022, has not stopped competition for influence between STC-backed forces and their political competitors. The STC’s primary rival is the Islamist Islah party, which the STC rhetorically equates with al Qaeda and the Islamic State. STC-ROYG competition came to a head in 2019, when the two factions fought each other in Abyan and Aden governorates.[7] Similar flare-ups have occurred since. Most recently, the STC-backed 111th Infantry Brigade attempted to block several ROYG brigades under the Abyan Military Axis—task forces deployed to geographically defined areas—from entering Ahwar district in eastern Abyan governorate in May 2022.[8]
The UAE helped create the armed groups that would become the STC beginning in 2015.[9] The UAE funded southern commanders to retake Aden in 2015 but also ensured that these commanders operated outside of the Yemeni government’s formal chain of command. This autonomy allowed the UAE to maintain its control over the proxies it created at the expense of the broader Saudi-led coalition and ROYG. The UAE continued the practice of dividing the formal chain of command after Zubaidi formed the STC in 2017.[10] STC-backed units do not answer to a coherent chain of command, even within the STC itself, and fissures between various units and commanders create divisions the UAE can use to control STC-backed units.
The UAE seeks to maintain control over the groups it supports in Yemen to pursue its own objectives, which diverge from the Saudi-led coalition’s objectives.[11] The UAE has withdrawn the bulk of its forces from Yemen since 2019, but it supports a large constellation of armed groups.[12] Its objectives include securing international waterways, countering political Islamists (ranging from the violent Salafi-jihadi al Qaeda to the political Islamist party Islah), and countering the Houthis.[13] – by Brian Carter
https://www.criticalthreats.org/analysis/understanding-military-units-in-southern-yemen#
(** B K P)
US working with Saudi Arabia on strategic military plans, general says
The Biden administration is leveraging the Pentagon to quietly rebuild trust with Riyadh in the wake of a very public dispute.
American military officials have been working behind the scenes to help counterparts in Saudi Arabia lay out a long-term vision for the kingdom’s national security, even as ties between the two governments remain strained, a top US general revealed Thursday.
“The Saudis are very interested in strategic plans with us,” Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, top commander of US forces in the Middle East, told reporters via conference call.
“Our strategic planners travel to the kingdom regularly to work with Saudi military leaders to build up their ideas for a long-term strategic vision,” said Kurilla, who leads US Central Command (CENTCOM).
Saudi Arabia is also set to release a national defense strategy and a national military strategy next year for the first time in its history, he said, though CENTCOM did not assist in drafting those plans, another defense official clarified to Al-Monitor.
The strategy documents, which have not yet been publicly confirmed by Saudi officials, will codify “the kingdom’s strategic vision for national security and regional security,” the general said. Kurilla called the decision “a critical step” in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s military modernization plans.
Why it matters: The Biden administration is leveraging the Pentagon’s know-how to help the kingdom meet its security goals in a bid to rebuild trust, even as the White House says it is reevaluating US relations with Riyadh.
Meanwhile, military officials at US Central Command have been quietly spearheading a diplomatic push to build up an informal regional defense coalition — one that can help countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates better defend against projectile attacks by Iran while reducing their dependency on US military presence.
What’s next: Kurilla’s command is moving ahead with plans to build out two additional experimental task forces — the Air Force Task Force 99 and Army Task Force 39 — to demonstrate to top brass in the Middle East the potential offered by commercially available unmanned technology linked with artificial intelligence.
The CENTCOM commander discussed those steps and plans for counter-drone weapons testing with Saudi Royal Armed Forces chief Fayyadh bin Hamed al-Ruwaili last month.
“It is an incredibly strong relationship,” Kurilla emphasized Thursday.
and a new report on this matter.
(* B P)
Biden improves US-Saudi cooperation to confront Iran, say officials
US officials have detected improved cooperation between the US and Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, three months after relations reached a historic low between the two countries.
The Wall Street Journal quoted officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden stating: "The Biden administration has dropped threats to retaliate against Saudi Arabia for an oil-production cut last year and is moving to step up security coordination to counter Iran in 2023."
The officials said that officers from both countries are: "Pressing ahead with new military and intelligence projects and sensitive efforts to contain Iran amid stalled efforts to revive the international nuclear deal with Tehran."
The officials explained to the newspaper that the two countries are moving forward with new military and intelligence projects and attempts to contain Iran amid stalled efforts to revive the international nuclear agreement with Tehran.
Last November, the two countries shared intelligence that Iran was preparing an imminent attack on Saudi Arabia and developed a coordinated response.
The officials pointed out that there has been: "Sustained military cooperation that helped carry the political relationship through months of upheaval. For example, Saudi jet fighters escorted long-range US bombers through their national airspace several times last year in exercises carried out with other countries allied with Washington, including Israel."
In the same context, the officials stated that the US is working closely with Saudi Arabia, Israel and other countries in the Middle East to develop new coordinated air defence systems and increase cooperation at sea to deter Iran.
(** B P)
BIDEN’S “DIPLOMACY” IN YEMEN MEANS TAKING SAUDI ARABIA’S SIDE — AND COULD SPARK ALL-OUT WAR
The White House said Bernie Sanders’s war powers resolution would prolong the war, but that’s what its own efforts are doing.
The White House’s claims that its diplomacy is working, however, are undercut by its own political moves and the reality on the ground. President Joe Biden’s envoy for the conflict has consistently sided with the Saudi coalition against the Houthi movement that controls much of the country. And though a ceasefire during the spring and summer provided a respite in civilian casualties due to bombings, the ongoing Saudi blockade and economic warfare against Yemenis perpetuates the humanitarian crisis in the country — which the United Nations has deemed the worst in the world.
Without taking an even-handed approach to the conflict in search of a political solution and the mitigation of the humanitarian crisis, the Biden administration’s machinations can hardly be considered good-faith efforts at diplomacy, critics of U.S. policy in the conflict said.
“There’s been no diplomatic progress whatsoever,” Jamal Benomar, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen until 2015, told The Intercept. “There’s been no political process, no negotiations, or even a prospect of them. So an all-out war can resume at any time.”
The divisions in Yemen — with the Saudi coalition controlling southern oil fields and ports, and the Houthi-led government controlling territory in the north that houses some 80 percent of the country’s 30 million residents — are only growing more entrenched. Instead of asking concessions of its allies in the Saudi coalition, the administration’s one-sidedness has contributed to the breakdown of diplomacy.
“There’s been a lull in the fighting, but since there was no concerted effort to move the political process forward, the lull is a temporary one and all sides are preparing for the worst,” said Benomar. “The situation is extremely fragile because Yemen has fragmented now and you have different areas of Yemen under the control of different warlords.”
Truce
The largely diplomatic push cited by the White House in opposing the Sanders war powers resolution — a so-far ineffective push that gives Saudi Arabia room to maneuver — follows a pattern it has held since early in the administration, when Biden pledged to work toward ending “offensive operations” to the Yemen war, and Saudi Arabia engaged in its most aggressive bombing campaign under the rubric of “defensive operations.”
Under such conditions, progress toward a treaty has remained elusive.
No Renewal
The ceasefire largely held up and kept getting renewed until October 2, when the Houthi government refused to renew it again.
The Houthi government laid blame with Riyadh and the U.S. for avoiding the issue most important to the Houthi-led coalition: monthly salary payments of the state employees. Since 2016, the Saudi-backed government relocated the Central Bank of Yemen to territory it controls, accusing the Houthi government of diverting the bank’s funds to the war effort, a charge international observers and aid groups found baseless. The Saudi-backed government promised to keep the bank’s policy of paying all public servants, estimated at 1 million employees who support around 10 million others, but it broke its word, denying millions of Yemenis their only source of income.
The Houthi-led coalition put the salary payment issue as a condition to renew the deal, but the Saudis agreed only on paying workers in the health and educational sectors. The Houthis maintained that the revenues from oil exports in areas under the Saudi-backed government, which would account for nearly 70 percent of Yemen’s budget, should be allocated for the pay of all public servants. No Biden-led diplomacy — intense, delicate, ongoing, or otherwise — could persuade the Saudis to stop diverting Yemeni public-servant money back to Riyadh.
Little progress has been made on the question of paying public servants.
During a congressional hearing in December, Biden’s Yemen envoy Tim Lenderking blamed the Houthi government for the current impasse, slamming “the last-minute Houthi demand that the Yemeni Government divert its limited oil export revenues to pay the salaries of active Houthi combatants.”
What the U.S. deemed unrealistic has in fact been a demand of Democrats on Capitol Hill. What Sanaa demanded as a condition to renew the deal wasn’t impossible or even unrealistic. A group of 16 senators — along with many aid groups — called on Biden in May 2021 to end the Saudi blockade. While the Biden administration angled to keep the blockade as leverage in negotiations, the senators said the embargo “must end today and be decoupled from ongoing negotiations.”
For critics, the Biden administration’s stance — considering the payments to Yemeni public servants too great a cost for establishing a new ceasefire — isn’t a serious approach to ending the war.
“These demands benefit ordinary Yemeni workers, not the Sana’a government itself,” said Shireen Al-Adeimi, an assistant professor at Michigan State University and a nonresident fellow at the Quincy Institute, referring to the Houthi government in the capital of Sana’a. “What’s ‘unrealistic’ and even cruel, however, is to continue denying millions of public servants their salaries for multiple years and to derail ceasefire negotiations because of a humanitarian, not a political or military, demand.”
The status quo leaves the Houthis little incentive to maintain a truce that delivers misery to the population it governs without any serious concessions around the blockade or payments to public-service employee payments. In return, the Houthi government has offered to cease its bombings of Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners. Saudi, emboldened by White House support, agreed on only easing restrictions on fuel imports.
That may be the dynamic at the heart of the White House’s opposition to the Sanders war powers resolution: Without U.S. support for its warplanes, the Saudis would be effectively grounded, perhaps emboldening the Houthis, who are poised to relaunch strikes and send global oil markets spinning to win an end to the blockade.
Facing the reality of the Houthis escalating their attacks, the Biden administration could dig in and refuse to meet reasonable Houthi demands while fending off congressional opposition to the war. Or the White House could pressure the Saudis into a genuine end to the war. In fighting the Sanders resolution, the White House has chosen to dig in. The Biden administration diplomacy is “ongoing,” but it’s not clear it’s going anywhere — making a resurgence of violence now seem inevitable – by Shuaib Almosawa
https://theintercept.com/2023/01/01/biden-yemen-war-diplomacy/
My remark: This article might be pro-Houthi to a certain extent. Those freom the other side mock this, there critics itself biased. Some serious and unserious arguments here:
Comment: The author conveniently omitted that before the UN-brokered truce, #Houthis attacked al-Jawf & Nihm, displacing hundreds of thousands, and continued its onslaught on #Marib city in a conflict that threatened to unravel the entire country. Bypassing this fact benefits Houthis.
It is grossly misleading to talk about a blockade when inspection mechanisms were expedited during the truce, and Sana airport opened and continues to be functional despite the Houthis' rejection of the truce.
Not a word is written on the terror and destruction of the #Houthis, the political prisoners and journalists in jail for over 8 years for speaking against them, or their blockade on #Yemen's third largest city #Taiz, but "Oil" was mentioned 12 times, a critical Houthi demand.
Houthis demanded that Yemen's government pay the salaries of civil servants and military under the Houthis (Imagine Ukraine paying Russian soldiers because Putin demands it) Houthis want to steal the funds. They also fired most civil servants & appointed their loyalists.
https://twitter.com/YemeniFatima/status/1610778154523824131
My comment: No, there is a “blockade” by the US-Saudi coalition, without any base of international law put upon the UN inspection mechanism.
und kurze deutsche Zusammenfassung:
(* B P)
Kritik an Jemen-Politik
Der Biden-Regierung wird Versagen bei Diplomatie in dem langjährigen Konflikt vorgeworfen.
Dabei hat das Weisse Haus einmal mehr das Versprechen diplomatischer Bemühungen für eine Beilegung des seit 2015 laufenden Konfliktes ins Feld geführt. Ohne logistische Unterstützung und Waffen aus den USA müssten die Saudis ihre vorwiegend mit Luftangriffen auf zivile Ziele und Blockaden geführten Feldzug binnen Tagen abbrechen. Geschehen ist auf diesem Gebiet seither nichts. Dies gibt nun «The Intercept» Anlass für Kritik an der US-Regierung: Zwar hätten die Konfliktparteien seit neun Monaten eine Waffenruhe weitgehend eingehalten. Aber die Saudis würden an der jahrelangen Blockade der von Houthi-Rebellen gehaltenen Regionen festgehalten. Die humanitäre Katastrophe im Jemen liefe deshalb ungemindert fort. Gleichzeitig wird US-Vermittlern in dem Konflikt einseitige Parteinahme für Riad vorgeworfen. «Intercept» zitiert als Gewährsmann den ehemaligen UN-Vermittler für Jemen, Jamal Benomar. Demnach gibt es im Jemen «keinen politischen Prozess, keinerlei diplomatischen Fortschritt – und nicht einmal Hoffnungen darauf.» Deshalb könne der Konflikt jederzeit wieder eskalieren. Darauf deuten Drohungen der von Teheran unterstützten Houthi zurück, die immer lauter nach der Aufhebung der saudischen Blockaden von Lebensmitteln, Medikamenten und Treibstoff rufen.
https://www.tachles.ch/artikel/news/kritik-jemen-politik
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How Yemen’s war weighs on women-led households
“If we go to sleep with a full stomach, I say to myself: ‘Good, we survived another day.’ ”
When Anhar Rashad’s soldier husband was killed two years into Yemen’s war, she quickly realised she needed to get a job so she and her then three-year-old son could survive.
But like most women in Yemen, a country that after nearly eight years of war is one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, the now 39-year-old had never planned to work outside the home.
With two years of business management studies but no work experience, Rashad’s 2017 job search wasn’t easy.
As the war drags on — a six-month ceasefire expired last October — the economic collapse that has become a key element in Yemen’s crisis has touched almost everyone. But as low levels of international aid funding force cuts in programmes like food rations, analysts and experts say they are particularly concerned about a growing and often overlooked demographic that includes Rashad and her son: women-led households.
Women account for 49 percent of 13.4 million people in “acute need” in Yemen. While it’s unclear just how many of the 21.6 million people the UN says need aid this year are part of homes headed by women, the number is on the rise, according to reports and aid workers. Over time, husbands and fathers have been killed or detained, and families have been forced apart for economic reasons or because of geographic splits imposed by the warring parties. An uptick in gender-based violence may also be prompting women to take their children and run.
Nezar Aboodi, spokesperson for the Aden-based Yemeni NGO Field Medical Foundation, said that while he doesn’t have hard numbers he has noticed more and more households that have women as the sole income-earner. Some women resort to dangerous coping mechanisms, he told The New Humanitarian: “Price rises are forcing these women to reduce their meals to one a day, and many have resorted to begging.”
Families headed by women are particularly vulnerable to hardships that result from the ongoing conflict, shortages in aid funding, and economic shocks, said Abdulwasea Mohammed, policy and advocacy manager at Oxfam Yemen. “The armed conflict in Yemen has exacerbated discrimination and inequalities,” he said by email. “Women are, in general, struggling from unequal access to services and resources, and decision-making is often made by men in their communities.”
As of 2021, the latest year for which data is available, Yemen’s “labour force participation rate” was 6 percent for women and 67.6 percent for men. Social and cultural norms tend to keep women out of the workforce. When Rashad and other women want — or are forced — to get a job, they have almost no chance of earning a decent income, Mohammed said.
Even before the war, around half of Yemenis lived in poverty. Now most people live under the poverty line and 19 million are food insecure — a situation that is projected to remain the same or get worse.
The economic situation has been increasingly dire over the past few years.
Women in Yemen, Oxfam’s Mohammed pointed out, often have fewer economic assets than men — whether land, homes, or belongings. They often do have skills honed at home, and some Yemeni women are drawing on them to try and earn money.
When 40-year-old Zakira Muhammad’s husband was killed in 2016, during a break-in at the bank where he worked in Aden, she was left with two kids and a high school diploma.
She was unable to find regular employment and felt unprepared to start her own business, despite taking hairdressing classes at a local NGO. Now she makes around 12,000 rials ($10) a month practising cupping, an alternative therapy.
That income is neither stable nor enough to support her family. Although she receives 20,000 ($18) a month from her husband’s pension and occasional food from aid groups and neighbours, like millions of Yemenis she has had to cut down on food.
“Our main meal is malawah [flaky bread made on a skillet] and tea,” said Muhammad. “Sometimes we have tuna. I can’t afford red meat or chicken.”
Others are worse off, particularly the 4.3 million Yemenis who have been forced to flee their homes.
Hussein al-Maalasi, professor of economics at the University of Aden, said Abdul Ghani’s case is somewhat typical, as many women without degrees or work experience launch small enterprises to make money.
Many of those businesses rely on imported raw materials. ”When the local currency deteriorates, these materials become scarce and overpriced,” said al-Maalasi, adding that small business owners are usually unable to obtain loans to tide them over when things get tough.
Abdul Ghani and her family had to leave their home for a smaller place, where she and her children live in one room. “To survive I had to borrow some money, my debts are piling up,” she said. “I sold all of my jewellery plus the store's assets and equipment. We cut down to eating chicken just once a month, and we barely eat fruits or dairy.”
Some aid groups are focusing on women-led families, or at least the most needy ones. Oxfam targets over 1,000 women-led households in south Yemen, though needs are rising.
Aid, at least as it is currently designed, may not be the long-term answer for women trying to support their families on their own – by Safa Naser
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2023/01/05/Yemen-women-food-war-humanitarian-crisis
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FORMER UN ENVOY TO YEMEN LINKED TO MI6, A PARTY TO THE WAR
Martin Griffiths, a Briton who now runs the United Nations’ humanitarian work, co-founded and advises a private conflict resolution company that “works closely” with MI6. He was until recently the UN special envoy to Yemen.
The company, Inter Mediate, was founded by Griffiths and Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s former chief of staff who is the company’s chief executive
Leading ex-MI6 officer was a founding director of Inter Mediate, which involves senior former UK military and diplomatic figures
Foreign Office has given over £4m to Inter Mediate and launched “campaign” to secure Griffiths’ appointment to his UN special envoy role
Griffiths has said “diplomatic work, information gathering or intelligence work is all about empathy at its core”
UK special forces, which operate with MI6, have been involved in the Yemen war
The findings may raise questions about the undermining of the appearance of impartiality crucial to the role of a UN special envoy and senior humanitarian official.
The Foreign Office promoted Griffiths to become UN special envoy to Yemen in February 2018. It stated: “A successful campaign to secure the appointment of a new UN special envoy for Yemen led to the appointment of British national and international mediation expert Martin Griffiths”.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General of the UN, told Declassified: “Mr. Griffiths was appointed by the Secretary-General as his Envoy for Yemen in 2018 following the standard recruitment and assessment process applied to all Secretariat positions in the United Nations.”
Saudi Arabia and the UK, which work closely together in the war in Yemen, “expressed their strong support” for Griffiths’ appointment as UN special envoy in a joint communiqué. The UK government has funded the UN special envoy’s office, providing £650,000 from the British aid budget in 2019-20.
Griffiths’ former political adviser in Yemen, Chris Halliday, took up his role by leaving his position as head of the Yemen team in the Foreign Office.
A Foreign Office spokesperson told Declassified: “The UK engages with a wide range of international NGOs and other groups to discuss best practice for conflict mediation in a number of countries.”
It added: “Inter-Mediate is one of many well-respected mediation organisations, with which we have discussed Yemen, Libya and other conflicts”.
Griffiths’s links to MI6 raise questions in light of UK special forces being party to the conflict in Yemen on which he previously led UN negotiations. In 2019, it was reported that “at least five British special forces commandos had been wounded in gun battles as part of a top-secret UK military campaign in Yemen”.
The men, from the Special Boat Service (SBS), received the injuries from battles in the Sa’dah area of northern Yemen, where “up to 30 crack British troops are based”, it was claimed.
The operations of UK special forces are opaque and guarded from transparency laws, but it is known that MI6 works closely with the SBS and the army’s equivalent, the Special Air Service (SAS). A recent article in the Daily Telegraph noted that “SAS personnel serve as a wing of MI6 while remaining under military command.”
The SAS has operated inside Yemen. In January 2019, a 12-man US/UK special forces task force, comprising the SAS and the US Green Berets, was reportedly flown into Yemen from Djibouti, ostensibly on an “humanitarian mission”.
The soldiers were dressed in Arab clothing and were reported to be operating near the government-held town of Marib in central Yemen.
Declassified revealed in 2021 that Britain had a secret detachment of up to 30 troops at Al-Ghaydah airport in eastern Yemen, where they were training Saudi forces.
A Foreign Office spokesperson told Declassified in 2021, when Griffiths was still UN envoy to Yemen: “Martin Griffiths is an independent UN official and highly regarded international mediator. We work closely with Griffiths on the Yemen conflict in his capacity as Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General to Yemen, and fully support his work in our role as penholder on Yemen in the UN Security Council.” – by Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis
https://declassifieduk.org/former-un-envoy-to-yemen-linked-to-mi6-a-party-to-the-war/
and
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UK LOANED MILITARY ADVISER TO BRITISH UN ENVOY IN YEMEN
The Ministry of Defence seconded a military officer to work with UN special envoy Martin Griffiths while British special forces were involved in the Yemen war, Declassified has discovered.
UK officer was seconded in 2019 and visited Yemeni capital Sana’a nine times in first year
The officer worked “directly” with – and provided “advice” to – Griffiths and was requested by the UN, UK Ministry of Defence says
The secondment raises further questions about impartiality of UN special envoy’s office when Griffiths, a Briton, was in post
The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) secretively seconded a military officer to Yemen in 2019, it can be revealed. The officer was attached to the office of the then UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths.
The MOD has told Declassified the military officer “works directly with and provides advice to the UN Special Envoy for Yemen regarding security and military issues relevant to the conflict in Yemen.”
The MOD added: “The military officer is not based in Yemen but has visited with the UN Special Envoy.”
The officer visited the Yemeni capital Sana’a on nine occasions, Declassified was told. But the UK government did not publicly announce the secondment, and there is no mention of it on the government website. Sana’a is currently under the control of Iran-backed Houthi rebel forces.
The secondment of the military officer raises further questions about the undermining of the appearance of impartiality crucial to the role of the UN special envoy. UK special forces are believed to have played a role in the war while the British military is maintaining the Saudi warplanes which have long operated over Yemen.
The information was obtained by Declassified following a freedom of information request. It is not known if the military officer had a relationship with British special forces in Yemen or UK military personnel based in Saudi Arabia.
An MOD spokesperson told Declassified: “The UN requested a military adviser in order to support the planning and negotiation of a ceasefire in Yemen. The UK filled this role as part of our efforts to support the peace process.”
However, the MOD refused Declassified’s request for a list of the locations of Defence Intelligence personnel around the world, and special forces are not covered under freedom of information laws.
In July 2021, Declassified revealed that Britain has a secret detachment of up to 30 troops at Al-Ghaydah airport in Mahra province of eastern Yemen, where they are training Saudi forces.
Declassified has also found that the UK military created a “Maritime Security Advisor” position in Yemen in 2015. Costing between £80,000 and £90,000 per year, some of which comes from the aid budget, the postholder was based temporarily with the UK Yemen Office Network at the British embassy in Riyadh.
The government states that this role focused on “improving Maritime Security to sustain humanitarian access and legitimate trade into key ports, as well as service delivery and improved governance”.
The position raises questions in light of Saudi Arabia’s naval embargo on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, which UN experts have described as violating international humanitarian law.
The UK is a strong supporter of the Saudi navy and has provided training on naval tactics that could be used for blockading Yemen, Declassified previously revealed – by Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis
https://declassifieduk.org/uk-loaned-military-adviser-to-british-un-envoy-in-yemen/
cp2 Allgemein / General
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Interactive Map of Yemen War
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IRGC trainers deployed in al-Hodeidah equip Houthis for attacks
The Houthis' threats to attack shipping lanes and the fresh deployment of IRGC experts to the Red Sea coast have raised concern in Yemen.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) experts have been deployed to Yemen's al-Hodeidah province to help the Houthis set up attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb strait, officials said.
The presence of IRGC specialists coincides with Houthi threats of an escalation and fresh attacks on shipping lanes, Al-Hadath news channel said in a December 21 report.
The Houthis have dispatched the specialists to the coastal districts of al-Durayhimi and Beit al-Faqih, and set up platforms for the launch of missiles and drones in preparation for a new battle, it reported.
"The Houthis brought in a group of Iraqi, Iranian and Lebanese military experts to al-Hodeidah, to work according to their specialties in naval operations and laying land mines," said al-Hodeidah provincial spokesman Ali Hameed al-Ahdal.
Among them are drone operators, who can set up direct attacks on various targets, he told Al-Mashareq.
He said the Houthis are "assembling Iran-manufactured drone components on Kamaran Island, in al-Salif area and in al-Durayhimi district".
Kamaran Island, situated off the Red Sea coast across from al-Salif on the mainland, is the largest Yemeni island in the Red Sea.
IRGC specialists are present in some coastal districts of al-Hodeidah province, which is controlled by the Houthis, in apparent preparation to carry out attacks on international shipping, al-Ahdal said.
The Iranian vessel Behshad, which replaced the Saviz -- another spy ship moored in the Red Sea -- provides logistical support to the Houthis, Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Maasali of al-Hodeidah military axis said in a November 18 statement.
The Behshad transports smuggled weapons, foreign experts, communication technologies and air defence systems, and its crew members smuggle drone shipments, ballistic missile parts and drugs to al-Hodeidah, he said.
They also provide the Houthis with information about international shipping lanes, the Yemeni Coast Guard and international peacekeeping forces.
The Behshad recently supplied the Houthis with Iranian-made military boats, and IRGC and Hizbullah trainers are teaching militia members how to use them to carry out attacks in the Red Sea, Maasali said.
Political analyst Ahmed al-Sabahi said the presence of IRGC experts in al-Hodeidah is not surprising.
https://almashareq.com/en_GB/articles/cnmi_am/features/2023/01/06/feature-02
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Reviving the Truce: Prospects for Stability and Security in Yemen
Participants explored the impacts of the recent truce in Yemen on the country's future.
The heavy toll of the conflict on civilians – 23.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and around 4.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) – makes a renewal and expansion of the truce in Yemen a priority.
To this end, on 23 November 2022 RUSI hosted an expert-led discussion bringing together analysts, practitioners and humanitarian workers on Yemen. The event included a session held off-record with about 20 participants, and a session which was streamed online on RUSI’s website. Both sessions explored how the end of the truce in Yemen impacted the humanitarian situation on the ground and what the prospects for stability and security in the country are moving forward.
This report summarises the major conclusions and talking points of both events, focusing on the insights that emerged about the humanitarian situation on the ground, the challenges linked to renewing and expanding the truce agreement, and what role international actors, the UK in particular, should play to address both issues.
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Receives of 3 fishermen abducted by aggression mercenaries
The [Sanaa gov.] General Fisheries Authority of the Red Sea and the Fishermen's Support Committee received three fishermen who had been abducted by aggression mercenaries for days.
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3218178.htm
and also https://en.ypagency.net/283491/
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Film: Transitional Justice in Wartime Yemen
During and after the 2011 uprising in Yemen, actors across civil society pushed longstanding and unmet demands for justice to the forefront. As Yemen’s internationally-brokered transitional process gave way to war, these demands persisted, even as new grievances quickly emerged. In this event, Stacey Philbrick Yadav, a leading expert on Yemeni politics and author of Yemen in the Shadow of Transition: Pursuing Justice Amid War (Oxford University Press, 2022) will discuss the work that civil actors are undertaking now to ensure that post-conflict institutions can substantively respond to the demands of Yemeni society. Drawing on nearly two decades of research, including recent collaborative research with Yemeni-led research and advocacy organizations, Yadav considers the road ahead for Yemeni civil society and elites. This discussion will be moderated by FPRI's Director of Research, James Ryan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KMsODRL9I4
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Jemenitische Lehrkräfte kämpfen um ihre Würde
Breit aufgestellte Proteste für die Auszahlung von Löhnen, die oft seit Jahren einbehalten werden – die Hungersnot im Land verschärft sich
Im Süden des Jemen gingen in den letzten Monaten über Wochen hinweg Tausende Lehrer*innen auf die Straßen, um für die Auszahlung ihrer Löhne zu protestieren. Seit 2016 werden die Gehälter eines Großteils der Hunderttausenden öffentlich Beschäftigten drastisch gekürzt oder in Gänze einbehalten, wovon indirekt Millionen Menschen betroffen sind. Im seit siebeneinhalb Jahren wütenden Krieg kann dies buchstäblich das Todesurteil bedeuten, da durch die ausbleibenden Löhne die historische Hungersnot im Land – unter der über 17 Millionen Jemenit*innen, weit mehr als die Hälfte der Bevölkerung, leiden – weiter verschärft wird. Auch wenn die jüngsten Proteste der Lehrer*innen zunächst abgeebbt sind, wird der Kampf um ihre Würde auch im nächsten Jahr weitergehen.
Vor Kriegsbeginn waren die Gehälter zwar nicht üppig, doch konnten Lehrkräfte sich und ihre Familien ernähren. 2016 begann dann der Einbehalt beziehungsweise die drastischen Kürzungen der Gehälter. «Das ist so wenig, das reicht nicht für Essen, gerade einmal für den Bus in die Schule und für Wasser», erklärt Eyad Alsrori, ein Lehrer aus der südjemenitischen Hafenstadt Aden, gegenüber dem Autor. Nach eigener Aussage erhält Eyad ein Monatsgehalt von umgerechnet drei US-Dollar. «In Aden verhungern die Lehrer», so sein vernichtendes Urteil. Als Begründung für diesen unhaltbaren Zustand, von dem auch ein Großteil der anderen öffentlich Angestellten betroffen ist, wurde sowohl von den Rebellen der Ansar Allah (hierzulande bekannt als «Houthis»), die den Norden des Landes kontrollieren, als auch vom Kabinett des seit 2015 konstitutionell illegitimen, mit dem Westen verbündeten «Präsidenten» Hadi im Süden die katastrophale ökonomische Lage angeführt.
Wiederholt kam es im Jemen bereits zu Streiks und Protesten der Lehrkräfte. 2017 streikten landesweit Hunderttausende Lehrer*innen, um für ihre Rechte zu kämpfen, nachdem rund Dreiviertel von ihnen über ein Jahr überhaupt keinen Lohn erhalten hatten. Zuletzt organisierten im letzten Sommer und Herbst Lehrkräfte in allen großen Städten im Südjemen breit aufgestellte Proteste. Dem voraus gingen zähe Verhandlungen zwischen Gewerkschaften und den Verantwortlichen im Bildungsministerium und den Schulämtern. Wieder wurden die Lehrkräfte mit halbgaren Versprechungen abgespeist.
https://www.rosalux.de/news/id/49765/jemenitische-lehrkraefte-kaempfen-um-ihre-wuerde
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Hoffnung auf Frieden im Jemen rückt in weite Ferne
Im Jemen findet nach wie vor eine der größten humanitären Krisen der Welt statt.
Dabei hatte es von April bis Oktober noch echte Hoffnung auf ein Ende des Konflikts gegeben.
Am 2. Oktober wurde diese Hoffnung allerdings zunichte gemacht, als die Huthis sich weigerten, die Waffenruhe zu verlängern.
Dabei gibt es zwei wesentliche Hindernisse für eine dauerhaft friedliche Lösung: Die vom Iran mit hochentwickelten Waffen ausgestatteten Huthis fühlen sich immer stärker, und die Koalition, die sie bekämpft, ist durch interne Konflikte zerrissen. So streben die südjemenitischen Provinzen nach Autonomie oder sogar nach vollständiger Abspaltung von der anerkannten jemenitischen Regierung.
Die sechs Monate des Waffenstillstands von April bis Oktober 2022 scheinen nur eine kurze Atempause inmitten eines nicht enden wollenden Konflikts gewesen zu sein, dessen Hauptopfer die Bevölkerung ist. Während der Iran weiterhin immer modernere Waffen liefert und die Huthis davon überzeugt sind, die Regierung stürzen und den gesamten Jemen übernehmen zu können, scheinen die Bitten an sie, einen weiteren Waffenstillstand auszuhandeln, auf taube Ohren zu stoßen. Unterdessen rückt die Hoffnung der Bevölkerung auf eine friedliche Zukunft in weite Ferne.
https://www.mena-watch.com/hoffnung-auf-frieden-im-jemen-rueckt-in-weite-ferne/
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After months of calm, Yemen looks anxiously to the new year
A six month truce set the tone for 2022, with Yemen’s warring parties largely avoiding direct conflict. With that deal falling apart, what will 2023 bring?
Ultimately, according to the Yemeni political researcher and author Adel Dashela, long-term stability in Yemen remains unattainable.
As the new year begins, he predicts three scenarios for Yemen.
“The regional powers may unanimously push Yemen’s warring sides to negotiate a lasting peaceful solution. But such a scenario is far-fetched given the Houthi stubbornness and the southern separatists’ inflexibility,” Dashela said, referring to the Southern Transitional Council, which, while officially part of the Saudi-led coalition that backs the government, has fought against government forces in the past and is in de facto control of the port city of Aden.
The second scenario is the perpetuation of the status quo, with the Houthi group ruling the north while the government and the secessionists control the south. “This seems less violent,” Dashela said. “However, it will expand and tighten the influence of the militant groups in the country.”
The breakout of an all-out war is the third scenario. “This is the most dangerous direction and will further devastate Yemen,” believes Dashela. “All indicators show that peace will not be fulfilled easily given the conflict’s complexity and the regional players’ hegemony.”
It is a scenario that leaves the lives of millions of Yemenis hanging in the balance.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/4/after-months-calm-yemen-looks-anxiously-new-year
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Pressekonferenz über Aggressionsverbrechen, humanitäre Situation in Dschouf
Während der Konferenz bestätigte der Gouverneur der Provinz Dschouf, Faisal bin Haider, dass Dschouf den größten Anteil an Tötungen und Zerstörungen infolge des Koalitionskrieges gegen den Jemen in den letzten acht Jahren hatte, was darauf hinwies, dass die Bomben und Minen der Aggressionskräfte fordern immer noch das Leben von Hunderten von Bürgern, darunter Kindern und Frauen.
Der stellvertretende Direktor des Gesundheitsamtes in Dschouf, Dr. Arafat Al-Badawi, erklärte seinerseits, dass die Aggressionskoalition und ihre Instrumente auf Häuser, Schulen, Märkte und Hochzeiten abzielten, was dazu führte, dass 387 Bürger getötet und 155 weitere verletzt wurden.
Dr. Al-Badawi wies darauf hin, dass das abscheulichste Verbrechen der Koalition im Jahr 2016 begangen wurde, als im Gebiet Al-Masaefa im Distrikt Khub Oasha'f eine Hochzeit angestrebt wurde, bei der 35 Bürger, darunter Frauen und Kleinkinder, ums Leben kamen.
Er wies darauf hin, dass die Zahl der zivilen Opfer in Dschouf während acht Jahren 980 betrug, darunter 426 Märtyrer und 554 Verwundete, was darauf hinweist, dass 1.320 Häuser infolge der Angriffsangriffe beschädigt wurden, von denen 500 vollständig zerstört wurden, während 280 landwirtschaftliche Einrichtungen und 27 Bildungs- und Gesundheitseinrichtungen wurden beschädigt.
Der Direktor der Al-Hazm-Krankenhausbehörde gab seinerseits an, dass das Krankenhaus im Jahr 2022 347 verletzte Bürger aufgenommen habe, darunter 40, die infolge der von den Aggressionskräften in der Provinz Jawf gelegten Minen starben.
https://www.saba.ye/de/news3217774.htm
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Press conference reveals crimes of coalition in Jawf
During the conference, the governor of the Jawf province, Faisal bin Haider, confirmed that Jawf had the largest share of killing and destruction as a result of the coalition war on Yemen during the past eight years, indicating that the bombs and mines of the coalition forces are still claiming the lives of hundreds of citizens, including children and women.
For his part, Deputy Director of the Health Office in Jawf, Dr. Arafat Al-Badawi, explained that the coalition and its tools targeted homes, schools, markets, and weddings, which resulted in killing 387 citizens and wounding 155 others.
Al-Badawi stated that the most heinous crime committed by the coalition was in the year 2016, when a wedding was targeted in Al-Masaefa area in Khub Washa’f district, which claimed lives of 35 citizens, including women and infants.
The number of civilian casualties in Jawf during eight years amounted to 980, including 426 martyrs and 554 wounded, Al-Badawi explained, indicating that 1,320 homes were damaged as a result of the coalition raids, of which 500 were completely destroyed, in addition to 280 agricultural facilities, and 27 educational and health facilities, were damaged.
For his part, Director of Al-Hazm Hospital Authority indicated that the hospital received, during the year 2022, 347 injured citizens, including 40 who died, as a result of mines planted by the coalition forces in Jawf province.
https://en.ypagency.net/283218/
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Der vergessene Krieg: Teherans Einfluss hat sich ausgeweitet
Die schlimmste humanitäre Katastrophe der Welt wurde durch die Folgen der russischen Ukraine-Invasion noch verschärft.
Acht Jahre später hat sich die strategische Position der Saudis in Süd-Arabien weiter verschlechtert: Die Huthis kontrollierten heute mehr Provinzen als zu Beginn ihrer Offensive.
Für das Büro der Vereinten Nationen für die Koordinierung humanitärer Angelegenheiten ist die Lage im Jemen noch immer die schlimmste humanitäre Katastrophe der Welt. Diese sei durch die russische Ukraine-Invasion und die dadurch resultierende Getreideknappheit noch verschärft worden. Bis zum Ausbruch des Krieges hatte der Jemen fast die Hälfte seines Getreides aus Russland und der Ukraine importiert.
Trotz der beträchtlichen Mittel, die für die Auswirkungen des Krieges in der Ukraine bereitgestellt werden, haben die wichtigsten Geberländer ihre Mittel für den Jemen aufrechterhalten oder, wie die USA, sogar verdoppelt. Saudi-Arabien und die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate hielten ihre dagegen bei Geberkonferenzen gemachten Zusagen nicht ein.
Mit einem dauerhaften Waffenstillstand oder gar Frieden im Jemen sei auch 2023 vermutlich nicht zu rechnen, befürchtet die Denkfabrik. Um die von der UNO unterstützten Friedensverhandlungen voranzubringen, müssten die Kriegsparteien „Wege zum Vertrauensaufbau“ finden. Allerdings wird über die Richtung nicht im Jemen, sondern letztendlich in Riad und Teheran entschieden.
In der iranischen Hauptstadt ist die Bereitschaft zum Einlenken gegenwärtig jedoch gering. Als Grund dafür nennen westliche Beobachter in Teheran den internationalen Druck auf das Regime wegen der Waffenlieferungen an Russland sowie seinem menschenverachtenden Umgang mit der Protestbewegung. Zur Strategie der Mullahs in einer solchen Situation gehöre es, den Druck an anderen regionalen Fronten wie zum Beispiel im Jemen, Syrien oder Libanon, also Ländern, in denen loyale Milizen agieren, zu erhöhen.
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Yemen’s peaceful future has been snatched away - opinion
Is a conflict of this nature really worth the same as the lives of the children impacted?
What does a peaceful settlement in Yemen look like?
THERE ARE two main obstacles to a permanent, peaceful settlement in Yemen: The Houthis, supported by sophisticated Iranian weaponry, are feeling increasingly empowered, and the coalition fighting them is riven by internal conflict.
Yemen has been plunged into a new uncertainty and a heightened risk of war. The Houthi military spokesman is reported as saying the group is ready for another round of fighting, and civilian deaths and injuries from sniper attacks and shelling have continued.
The six months of the truce, from April to October 2022, now appears to have been a brief breathing space in the midst of an unending conflict whose main victims are the hapless people of Yemen. While Iran continues to supply weapons of ever-increasing sophistication, and the Houthis believe they have a chance of overthrowing the government and taking over all of Yemen, pleas to them to negotiate another ceasefire seem doomed to fall on deaf ears. Meanwhile, Yemen’s hopes of a peaceful future recede into the far distance.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-726382
(B H P)
UN a Bridge for US-Saudi Crimes in Yemen
Non-fatal epidemics such as cholera and malaria claimed the lives of 686 people in Yemen during 2022. Epidemics that could simply be treated have turned into a deadly nightmare in Yemen, which has been under war and blockade for the eighth year in a row.
Yemen is experiencing a number of catastrophic paradoxes in the health sector, resulting from unethical practices committed by the US-Saudi aggression under the cover of the United Nations and the Security Council. Children can lose their lives as a result of “tonsillitis” for complex reasons that were deliberately created by the countries involved in aggression to cause the greatest amount of harm among civilians in Yemen.
The role of the United Nations in Yemen is limited to providing statistics, at best, on the humanitarian situation in Yemen. However, its role, according to the prevailing opinion of the Yemenis, is not playing its primary role in preventing the disaster before it happens, by ending the intervention of the military coalition in Yemen and lifting the siege on the country.
Lack of Confidence, Suspicious Role
Yemenis believe that the UN has become facilitating the mission of the US-Saudi aggression to commit all violations against the people of Yemen. The UN and its affiliated organizations are working to address the results of the war and the blockade instead of addressing the causes of stopping the war and ending the blockade. This makes the people of Yemen a victim of a closed circle of committing crime at the hands of the coalition and covering it up for suspicious purposes by the UN.
https://english.almasirah.net.ye/post/30504/UN-a-Bridge-for-US-Saudi-Crimes-in-Yemen
(B K P)
Rights Group Reveals Details on Saudi-led Aggression Crimes Against Yemen During 2022
A rights group has documented the number of US-Saudi crimes during 2022. According to Eye of Humanity Center (Ain al-Insiyah Center) for Human Rights and Development, 3,083 civilians were killed and injured.
Nearly 102 children and 27 women were killed. The total number of injured amounted to 2,440 including 353 children and 97 women.
The Center confirmed that the US-Saudi aggression targeted 14,367 homes and university facilities, 134 mosques, 12 hospitals and health facilities, 64 schools and educational facilities. 37 food stores, 334 tanks, a water station, 416 fuel stations, 95 food trucks, 1,987 agricultural fields, 29 poultry and livestock farms, and 3 fishing boats were bombed.
It also indicated that during 2022 the US-Saudi aggression hit 4 factories, 229 commercial facilities, 13 fuel tankers and 1,022 different means of transportation.
The Center concluded its statistics saying that the US-Saudi aggression targeted one airport, all Seaports, 974 roads and bridges, 22 stations and generators, 46 networks and communication stations, 57 government facilities, three archaeological sites, two sports facilities, seven media facilities, and five tourist facilities.
and also https://en.ypagency.net/282913/ = https://hodhodyemennews.net/en_US/2022/12/31/harrowing-statistics-released-on-total-human-cost-of-saudi-led-war-on-yemen-in-2022/
(B K P)
Houthis commit 3400 violations in 2022
[Aden gov. linked] National Committee for Investigations into Alleged Violations of Human Rights (NCIAVHR) announced that it documented and investigated into (3411) incidents of violations in 2022 occurred in different Yemeni governorates.
These violations caused damages to (3713) victims out of which 940 incidents included attacks on civilians resulted in killing 447 among them 35 women, 82 children and 891 injuries including 84 women, 212 children.
The NCIAVHR issued a press release shared with the Yemeni News Agency (Saba) noted that it had completed investigations into detonating 52 houses, forcefully displacing 144 families. Invitations also accomplished into 87 incidents of killing outside the law.
The NCIAVHR reported about 124 victims of anti-personnel landmines among them women and children. While shelling and snipers attacks on civilians resulted in killing and injuring 108 among them 16 women and 23 children.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/37064
and also https://republicanyemen.net/archives/32712
(* B K)
Jemen-Krieg fordert trotz Waffenstillstand bis 2022 fast 450 Tote unter der Zivilbevölkerung
Nach Schätzungen einer jemenitischen Kommission sind im Jemen seit Anfang des Jahres fast 450 Zivilisten durch den seit langem andauernden Konflikt zwischen der jemenitischen Regierung und den Huthi-Aufständischen ums Leben gekommen, obwohl zwischen April und Oktober ein prekärer Waffenstillstand herrschte.
Die Daten wurden von der jemenitischen Nationalen Kommission für die Untersuchung mutmaßlicher Menschenrechtsverletzungen (NCIAVHR) zur Verfügung gestellt, einem "nationalen Mechanismus" im Sinne der UN-Resolutionen, wie auf ihrer Website beschrieben.
In ihrer am Donnerstag veröffentlichten Jahresbilanz, über die das Nachrichtenportal The New Arab berichtet, dokumentiert die Kommission den Tod von 447 Zivilisten, darunter 35 Frauen und 82 Kinder
(* B K)
447 civilians killed in war-torn Yemen in 2022
35 women, 82 children among victims
At least 447 civilians have been killed in fighting between Yemen’s warring rivals this year, according to a rights group on Thursday.
Thirty-five women and 82 children were among the victims, the National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations to Human Rights said in a statement.
Around 891 civilians were also injured in the violence, including 84 women and 212 children, it added.
The rights group said it documented 3,411 violations across Yemen in 2022 which varied from torture, forced displacement, illegal arrests, home demolitions to child recruitment.
The commission blamed the warring rivals for these violations, but singled out Houthi rebels for blame for landmine explosions and child recruitment.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/life/447-civilians-killed-in-war-torn-yemen-in-2022/2775696
(* B H K P)
Film: Year in Review: Yemen and the Gulf in 2022
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221229-year-in-review-yemen-and-the-gulf-in-2022/
(B K P)
Film: Yemen and Saudi Arabia: History, Ties, Confict
Saudi Arabia's eight-year intervention in the conflict in Yemen played a significant role in the ongoing civil war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen, which had resulted in the deaths of over 377,000 people by the end of 2021, according to U.N. estimates. What is the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Yemen? "Yemen and Saudi Arabia have had a long and complicated history," explains Dr. Karen E. Young, Senior Research Scholar at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dtg4iXrVAQ
and
(B K P)
Film: Could conflict in Yemen destabilize the region?
The ongoing civil war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen have claimed more than 377,000 lives so far. Could the conflict in Yemen destabilize the entire region? Dr. Karen E. Young, Senior Research Scholar at the Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy, explains why the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait is so significant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW90cK8Ua5g
cp2a Saudische Blockade / Saudi blockade
(A P)
"siege is war" the million marches. Warning messages to aggression forces
The aggression States have expanded their economic war against the Yemeni people, this was demonstrated by the denial of access to oil derivatives vessels, foodstuffs and medicine through the port of Hodeidah and the continued refusal to pay State employees' salaries from Yemen's oil and gas revenues and wealth.
All this comes after the aggression States failed to achieve any military victory on the fronts and arenas of confrontation in various fields.
This illegal measure affects the details of Yemeni citizens' daily lives and affects key sectors such as agriculture, industry, health and trade by the complete paralysis incomprehensible, only in the sense of the United States-Saudi-UAE aggression coalition's inability of military confrontation in various fields to resort to such a vile method of narrowing Yemenis in their daily lives.
Sana'a has repeatedly warned through its officials about the gravity of this issue and the consequent suffering of the population, The United Nations called for intervention and action to resolve the issue of the embargo as a war against humanity, for its direct impact on the daily lives of millions of Yemenis and the departure of economic sectors from work.
However, as is known, the United Nations, which has failed to resolve any issue at the international level, as an organization by colonial Powers, conducts its work in accordance with the interests and aspirations of those States, how else do we understand this suspicious silence by the officials of this international Organization in addressing and resolving an issue affecting the lives of an entire people? And where is humanity from that? Are human rights principles only for media consumption?
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3218239.htm
(A P)
YPC: Aggression forces seizes 4 fuel ships
The Yemeni Petroleum Company (YPC) on Friday confirmed that the aggression coalition seized 4 fuel ships and prevented them from reaching Hodeida port.
YPC official spokesman Issam al-Mutawakil, the US-Saudi aggression coalition, in clear disregard for the human suffering of the Yemeni people, detained four fuel ships despite their inspection in Djibouti.
He pointed out that the seized ships include the gasoline ship "Sea Adore", the diesel ship "Golf Aetos" and the two diesel ships "Princess Khadija and Soprano Sirene".
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3217267.htm
and also https://en.ypagency.net/282815/
cp3 Humanitäre Lage / Humanitarian situation
Siehe / Look at cp1
(B H)
The geraldton woman running a hospital in war-torn Yemen
https://thewest.com.au/stories/the-wa-nurse-running-a-hospital-in-yemen/
(A H)
SFD Yemen: An example of the efficient use of funds is our sustainable intervention with the solar energy system (186 thousand watts) in support of two separate sectors of Zabid: to pump well water for the distribution network (3.3 km), and to operate the sewage treatment plant, to save the lives of 41,000 people at a time when providing fuel costs for the two stations constituted a critical challenge for these warm city (photo)
https://twitter.com/SFDYemen/status/1611053211951190018
(* B H)
Yemeni Women Archive Documents Histories of Yemeni Women at Home and Abroad
The repercussions of seven years of war in Yemen have fallen heavily on women. Two scholars, the Yemeni researcher and poet Saba Hamzah and the artist Jihad Jarallah have launched the Yemeni Women Archive to make sure their stories are not lost.
The archive project seeks to document the experiences of women facing marginalisation, exclusion, and daily challenges, Hamzah, who resides in the Netherlands, told Al-Fanar Media.
Through narratives in various forms, the initiative aims to create a unique archive of transformation stories of women and the “gender challenges they face in their various life phases,” Hamzah said. It will serve as “a space for knowledges emerging from women’s experiences and histories in Yemen and the diaspora.”
It will collect and preserve stories of women regardless of their age, or intellectual or political affiliations, she added, noting that these experiences illuminate aspects of change that women make in all fields.
Regarding her motives to launch the Yemeni Women Archive initiative, Hamzah said: “We believe that women in general, and Yemeni women in particular, are history makers through hundreds of incidents, but most of these stories go undocumented and might get lost, especially in times of war. This increases the responsibility and importance of documenting and archiving these stories to preserve them from loss or oblivion.”
Hamzah’s own experience as a refugee had a great impact on her academic interests and research career. It motivated her to dedicate most of her research to women’s issues in Yemen, ways of empowering them, and the difficulties they face.
She attributes her personal motivation behind the archive project to “the constant passion for archiving and preserving memory,” she said. “This is especially true because of my lacking details of my ancestors’ history due to the lack of any pictures of them, or documenting clips of their stories,” she said.
(B E H)
Yemen Price Bulletin, December 2022
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) monitors trends in staple food prices in countries vulnerable to food insecurity. For each FEWS NET country and region, the Price Bulletin provides a set of charts showing monthly prices in the current marketing year in selected urban centers and allowing users to compare current trends with both five-year average prices, indicative of seasonal trends, and prices in the previous year.
Wheat flour is the staple food for most households in Yemen; sorghum and rice are most often consumed as a substitute. Households re heavily dependent on imported wheat suppliesreaching the regional trading centers of Sana’a City, Al HudaydahCity, and Aden City—critical markets that supply other urban and rural districts. Aden City, located in a trade deficit zone, is the reference market for the southern region and the largest wholesale market with significant storage capacity. Al Hudaydah is animportant assembly, wholesale, and retail market in the mostpopulous region in the country where most households are dependent on markets for staple foods. Sana’a City serves as a wholesale and retail market for households in northern and central Yemen, and Sayoun serves as a reference market of the east.
Wheat grain and flour prices are susceptible to the exchange rate of the Yemeni Rial (YER) and US Dollar (USD). There are currently two exchange rates split by monetary governance between the Sana’a-based authorities (SBA) and the internationally recognized government (IRG).
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-price-bulletin-december-2022
(B H)
Yemen WASH Needs Tracking System (WANTS) Cholera KI, various districts, Lahj Governorate, November 2022
(B H)
Yemen: Health Cluster Achievements (November 2022)
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/yemen-health-cluster-achievements-november-2022
(B H)
Based on your donation our friends, donors, and followers @monarelief could build a primary school for students who have no place to study in. Pictures below show you the stages of our first vital project in education and the progress of the project now. (photos)
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1610876548026085377
and also https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1610876548026085377
(B H)
Film: Fadak e.V.: Lebensmittelpakete im Jemen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blRPBkXdq8Y
(B H)
Film: Die Kinder von Sanaa: Der vergessene Krieg im Jemen
https://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/video/video-1136673.html = https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/tagesschau24/die-kinder-von-sanaa-der-vergessene-krieg-im-jemen/tagesschau24/Y3JpZDovL2Rhc2Vyc3RlLmRlL3RhZ2Vzc2NoYXUyNC9mYmVlZmE5Yi02MDNkLTQ3YzItODFhMi0wMjRkOTI3NjM1MWIvMQ
(B H)
Yemen: Humanitarian Response Plan (YHRP) 2022 - Funding Status, End of Year 2022
(B H)
UN - Rapid Response Mechanism: Post-distribution Monitoring Report
Executive Summary
This Post Distribution Monitoring (PDM) report presents the findings of the PDM for the Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) programme that was implemented by UNFPA in Yemen. This PDM was conducted between the 13th of November and the 1 st of December 2022. The RRM targeted the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) with RRM in-kind assistance. The PDM was conducted to assess the usefulness, relevance, appropriateness, accessibility, and acceptability of the RRM assistance distributed to the IDPs. Moreover, this PDM aimed to gauge the beneficiary’s satisfaction with the registration and distribution processes, as well as the quantity, quality and content of the RRM kits. Finally, this PDM measures the overall performance of the Implementing Partners (IPs) in terms of registration, distribution, and adherence to the COVID-19 precautionary measures.
The monitoring methodology for the PDM is a quantitative method through structured interviews (70% home visits interviews and 30% phone calls interviews) with a sample of household heads from the targeted People reached with services. The sample size consisted of 861 HHs (10% of the population), including 72.2% males and 27.8% females) from a total people reached with services of 8,610 HHs across 17 governorates1 . The sample size was determined by UNFPA, and the sample distribution was prepared by Moore Yemen (MY) and approved by UNFPA.
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/un-rapid-response-mechanism-post-distribution-monitoring-report
(B H)
Fatik Al-Rodaini: My dream to build a school in #Yemen is about to come true. I wish i can start the second phase of the project to build the second floor. I'm really happy to share with you the progress in this vital project. This project in the first phase was funded by @monarelief
https://twitter.com/Fatikr/status/1610112980720537601
Report from November: https://www.patreon.com/posts/74053562
(B H)
Film: A scene of daily #suffering for most Yemeni families to obtain water for years, & this scene has not changed. #This is the reality of #war & #siege. You can #imagine, how they live, each person trying to fill enough in plastic containers of different sizes & old.
https://twitter.com/ghalebalsudmy/status/1609614345008185344
(B H)
Bringing Life Back To Thousands of People: RDP Health Success Story, Jan 2023
In Marib gov, the impact of war has disrupted the societal infrastructure that supported health care. Still many health facilities suffer significant damages which adversely affect a high population density from getting the essential health services they need to save their lives.
In Sirwah, Al-Mahjaza, more than 12 villages – with an approximate number of 9,450 individuals, 7,000 of whom are internally displaced persons (IDPs) – have been deprived of primary health care due to the major damages and closure of Al-Raql health center. Unfortunately, Al-Raql is considered to be the largest health facility where its six-year closure had led to critical consequences for the population and increased their suffering to life-saving medical services, requiring immediate rehabilitation as well as sufficient medical supplies to be fully operational.
Jan 2022, was the turning point for thousands of needy people as RDP, in collaboration with Yemen Humanitarian Fund (YHF), has responded to the dire health need through implementing the integrated health and nutrition project to increase the access to high-quality core components of the minimum service package (MSP) and life-saving nutrition services for the most vulnerable people including IDPs, targeting four health facilities in Sirwah and Harib Al Qaramesh districts of Marib governorate.
(B H)
Human Access: Various activities for advancement of women and girls and realization of their full potential
A number of activities were implemented by HUMAN ACCESS in Hadhramaut and Marib in connection with the UNFPA-funded project "Safe Space for Women and Girls" that provides protection and livelihood support.
This project aims to empower women and girls to defend their rights and seek support and inspiration they need in order to reach their full potential by standing up and defending their rights.
As part of this initiative, training skills in the fields of incense and hairdressing were completed in Mukalla, Hadhramaut
Medical and in-kind items supplied to Ras Al-Arah Rural Hospital
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/medical-and-kind-items-supplied-ras-al-arah-rural-hospital-enar
With Kuwaiti funding.. running a mobile medical clinic
https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/kuwaiti-funding-running-mobile-medical-clinic-enar
HUMAN ACCESS opens a specialized center for child malnutrition treatment in Marib
Shelter, relief items and cash aid.. 2056 families benefit from HUMAN ACCESS interventions
Since it is a matter of life and death, the HUMAN ACCESS’s relief unit extends a relief lifeline to people in need and reduces suffering.
Food baskets, shelter items, and cash assistance were distributed throughout October 2022 in the governorates of Taiz and Marib, with the help of a number of donors. About 2056 families were assisted through these humanitarian initiatives.
148 households, 304 children benefit from food baskets, blankets and winter clothing
(* B E H)
Yemen Key Message Update: Food prices remain generally high and stable despite declining fuel prices in November, November 2022
Key Messages
Despite a relative seasonal improvement in food and income from cereal and citrus production, millions of households in Yemen still face difficulty meeting their basic food needs due to significantly above-average food prices, the limited availability of income-earning opportunities, ongoing humanitarian assistance cuts, and highly eroded coping capacity. Throughout the projection period, conflict is expected to gradually re-escalate and humanitarian assistance is expected to continue at levels lower than in recent past years. Given this and large populations dependent on assistance (especially displaced households), Emergency (IPC Phase 4) outcomes are expected to persist in Marib and emerge in Hajjah early 2023. In Hajjah, the availability of food and income is also expected to decline during the agricultural off-season (January/February to March). Elsewhere, Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes are expected to remain widespread.
The main harvest of cereals concluded in November in highland areas and is expected from December to February/March in lowland areas.
The monthly parallel market exchange rate between the Yemeni rial (YER) and the USD was largely stable from October to November, on average. In IRG-controlled areas, the YER gained one percent in value in November compared to the previous month and was valued 22 percent higher than at the same time last year, according to data from FAO.
According to FAO, fuel prices generally continued to decline countrywide in November alongside declining global prices and, in SBA areas, improved fuel supply in recent months.
(B H)
Yemen Humanitarian Data
https://data.humdata.org/group/yem
(B H)
Women's challenges and rights in Yemen and the U.S.
This episode of Al-Jisr podcast talks about the struggles of women in Yemen and the United States
https://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2022/12/aljisr-podcast-4
(B H)
Film: Yemeni mother struggles to support her orphaned children
Despite the hardships and painful conditions, the Yemeni woman Imtiaz al-Zubairi struggles to provide for her children. Al-Zubairi lost her husband and her job as a kindergarten teacher to a shell during the war and became the sole breadwinner for the orphans. Speaking to A24, the woman said she decided to defy all circumstances and start her own business by marketing and selling handicrafts and accessories online.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6cOzoUbV7s
(B H)
UNOCHA Yemen datasets
https://data.humdata.org/m/group/yem?force_layout=light
cp4 Flüchtlinge / Refugees
(* B H)
IDPs in random camps... Suffering in the cold
More than 1 million displaced people live in about 1,000 and 700 informal camps, in free provinces, living in difficult humanitarian situations because of lack of basic needs in the context of the world's worst humanitarian crisis in the Yemeni people.
As winter enters, displaced people face extreme cold within their worn-out tents in parallel with a lack of basic services, the most basic ingredients of a decent life, compounding their suffering, especially women, children, the elderly and the sick, who are the groups most affected by tragic conditions in those camps.
A report by the Information Centre of the Supreme Council for Humanitarian Management, Coordination and International Cooperation noted the high numbers of displaced persons in informal camps in 15 governorates, to record levels.
The report, a copy of which was received by the Yemeni News Agency (SABA), indicated that the informal camps amounted to 1,000 and 697 indiscriminate and isolated camps inhabited by 199 thousand and 433 displaced families, it comprises 1 million 239 thousand 581 individuals as of the end of December 2022.
"Amid the ongoing suffering and pain in displacement camps, the Supreme Council is working with humanitarian partners to provide food and shelter assistance may mitigating displaced persons, but the humanitarian response has fallen short of needs ".
The report confirmed that displaced persons lack the most basic services of shelter supplies and other assistance in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, it is the worst in the world for the Yemeni people, depriving hundreds of thousands of children of education and living a normal life.
According to the report, the number of displaced women is 618 thousand and 122, while the number of displaced children under the age of 5 is 193 thousand, in addition to 113 thousand and 950 displaced older persons.
These groups are the most vulnerable in displacement camps in the light of the deterioration of the living aspects and the essential ingredients of human dignity life and the absence of protection and empowerment programmes.
Thousands of displaced people living in the camps in high mountain areas complain of the extreme cold that puts down their bones while lacking the lowest means of prevention, as well as the spread of diseases and epidemics, they hope to get new tents and blankets.
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3218177.htm
(B H)
Yemen: Protection Monitoring Assessments by District - Jan 2022 - Dec 2022
https://reliefweb.int/map/yemen/yemen-protection-monitoring-assessments-district-jan-2022-dec-2022
(B H)
UNHCR Yemen: IDPs Protection Monitoring Update (1 Jan 2022 - 31 Dec 2022)
(B H)
IOM Yemen: Rapid Displacement Tracking - Yemen IDP Dashboard I Reporting Period: 25 to 31 December 2022
Between 25 and 31 December 2022, IOM Yemen DTM tracked 35 households (210 individuals)2 who experienced displacement at least once.
Safety and security concerns as a result of the conflict were the main reason for displacement, accounting for 60 per cent (21 HHs) of the total and followed by economic reasons related to conflict, accounting for 40 per cent (14 HHs). From 1 January to 31 December 2022, IOM Yemen DTM tracked 10,135 households (HH)3 (60,810 Individuals) who experienced displacement at least once.
(B H)
Yemen: Rapid Response Mechanism-First Line Response RRM Annual Report, Jan - Dec 2022
In 2022, the UN Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) led by UNFPA enrolled and assisted newly displaced families in 21 governorates (232 districts), reaching 63,876 households (447,132 individuals). Among those newly displaced, 62 per cent (275,814 individuals) were displaced due to conflict, while 38 per cent (170,450 individuals) were displaced by torrential rains and flooding.
The RRM in-kind response time remains up to a maximum of 72 hours, with an average of six days between enrollment of a family and receipt of assistance. The RRM achieved 76% targets out of the 588,753 Cluster HRP targets for 2022.
(* B H)
IOM DTM: Aden IDP Intention Survey Data Collection: 4 to 10 October 2022
Three-quarters of households in assessed sites had arrived between 2017 and 2019 (74%) peaking in the first quarter of 2018 while only 16 per cent had arrived since the beginning of 2020. Most households arrived from Al Hodeidah (75%), where the battle of Al Hodeidah took place starting June 2018 when Yemeni forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition launched the offensive for Hodeidah on de facto authorities. The port of Al Hodeidah represents a strategically significant area to both sides of the conflict as it is a transit point for 80 percent of essential food, medical and commercial supplies for Yemen.
Despite widespread concerns about a lack of basic services, most interviewed households either planned on remaining at current locations of displacement (41%) or reported not having decided yet (28%). Plans to remain at sites were mostly related to security concerns. Just under a third reported currently having plans for return (31%) but these plans were most commonly not intended to be acted upon with the following six months (63% of households intending to return) and were rarely based on a perception of safer conditions there.
(B H)
Film: Yemen's displaced running low on resources amid freezing winter
The war in Yemen has plunged the nation into a deep political crisis that analysts predict will take at least a decade to recover from. UN officials say more than 400-thousand civilians have been killed by the conflict. And those who have escaped death, are living in terrible conditions. And what is expected to be one of the coldest winter in decades only adds to the misery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SSPjzwTC_g
(A H)
3 citizens injured, 80 families affected by major fire in Mahra
At least three citizens were injured on Saturday in a fire that engulfed a number of homes of the poor and displaced people in Mahra province, eastern Yemen.
https://en.ypagency.net/282877/ = https://hodhodyemennews.net/en_US/2022/12/31/at-least-three-injured-in-major-fire-in-mahrah-province/
(A H P)
Third group of illegal immigrants departed through Sana'a Airport
The third group of the Ethiopian illegal immigrants were deported on Friday, through Sana'a International Airport, to their country, the Immigration, Passports and Naturalization Authority said.
Director General of Follow-up and Deportation Colonel Hussein Al-Kibsi stated that the deportation flight is one of several flights, planned by the Authority in coordination with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), to help 500 illegal immigrants return to their countries.
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3217284.htm
cp5 Nordjemen und Huthis / Northern Yemen and Houthis
Siehe / Look at cp1
(A P)
Yemeni people stage rallies against Saudi-led coalition
On Friday, a large number of people in different provinces of Yemen took to the streets and staged rallies against the war and siege on the impoverished country.
The participants in the rally chanted slogans expressing their anger towards the US economic blockade on the Yemeni People, blaming the US-Saudi aggression for the continuation of the blockade, according to Almasirah.
Crowds flocked from the various districts of Sa’adah since the early morning, carrying the Yemeni flag, pictures of the martyrs, and slogans of freedom rejecting American hegemony.
The marchers in their final statement at the end of the rally warned the countries complicit in the aggression of the consequences of continuing the aggression and the blockade and preventing the entry of oil ships. It called on the Armed Forces to take an appropriate response to break the siege.
https://en.mehrnews.com/news/195797/Yemeni-people-stage-rallies-against-Saudi-led-coalition
and also https://www.saba.ye/en/news3218155.htm
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3218160.htm
Films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEzb0hcFH1Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Wj5ZGZdvc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqqqZN9ypog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd5CvgJEmaQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3xQ4oEIUb0
(A P)
Houthi terrorists force govt workers to sign sectarian code of conduct
Yemen's terrorist Houthi movement are forcing government workers in the regions they control to sign a sectarian Shiit code of conduct if they want to receive periodical sustenance in money or food packs
Local sources have said the terrorists are forcing managers in all public offices to force their subordinates to sign the 36-page pledge of alliance to the Houthi leader Abdulmalik Al-Houthi and to engage in the movement's sectarian activities.
All civil servants who refuse will be fired from the public payroll after being six years behind with their pay.
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-62369
(A P)
Recruiting child soldiers often begins with "cultural" courses in which they are indoctrinated with extremist ideas, fueling a culture of violence & glorifying war. Then they are dispatched to the frontlines
https://twitter.com/ycmhrv/status/1611656239997411328
#Rasd_Coalition obtained documented information that "Mahmoud Zabiba", the jihadist supervisor of #Houthi militia in Misek, is directly responsible for all child recruitment campaigns in the region and is attracting young recruits
He posted ads on Al-Ghouli School &streets of Misek in #Sanaa, calling children to join fronts. Many of testimonies of child victims linked his name to mobilization. Accountability &trial of perpetrators of violations against children &recruitment remains first the demand
https://twitter.com/ycmhrv/status/1610893135718060032
Earlier, the #Rasd_Coalition team obtained documented information confirming that a person named "Mahmoud Zabiba", the jihadist supervisor of the Houthi militia in Maskik, is directly responsible for all child recruitment campaigns in the region and is attracting young recruits. And he had previously posted advertisements on the walls of Al-Ghouli School and the streets and alleys of the Misik neighborhood in #Sana'a, in which he called on children to go to the fronts. Many of the testimonies of child victims linked his name to the stage of polarization. Accountability and trial of perpetrators of violations against children and their recruitment remains the first requirement.
https://twitter.com/ycmhrv/status/1610720570383163392
(A P)
Yemeni anchorwoman Ashwaq al-Yarimi abducted by the Houthis on Tuesday for traveling to Dhamar Governorate without a Mahram (male guardian), according to sources close to her family.
https://twitter.com/Alsakaniali/status/1610752268441366529
(A P)
Pregnant dies of grief, after Houthis tortured her husband to death
https://www.alsahwa-yemen.net/en/p-62359
(A P)
Sanaa starts trial of Saudi intelligence cells involved in assassination of Minister Hassan Zaid, other figures
The Specialized Criminal Court in the capital, Sanaa, held its session on Wednesday to complete the trial procedures in the case filed by the Public Prosecution against Fadl Hussein Al-Masqari and others for forming criminal cells operating under the command of the Saudi-led coalition countries and managed by Saudi intelligence.
These cells monitored and assassinated a number of political and social figures in the capital, Sanaa, and the provinces of Dhamar and Ibb, the latest of which was the assassination of the martyr Hassan Muhammad Zaid, Minister of Youth and Sports on October 27, 2020.
During the session, the court heard a number of prosecution witnesses who were summoned by the Public Prosecution to prove the facts attributed to the defendants in the indictment. The court also reviewed the audio and video-documented confessions of one of the defendants.
In the session, the son of the martyr Hassan Zaid submitted a request for legal retribution from everyone who contributed, participated, and was involved in the killing of his father.
https://en.ypagency.net/283283/
and also https://www.ansarollah.com/archives/576931
(B P)
Political prisoners jailed by #Houthis are in dire conditions. Before & after images demonstrate the harsh circumstances they face. It's unacceptable that #Yemen's government grants further concessions to Houthis while dissidents have been in jail for 8 years. This must end.
https://twitter.com/YemeniFatima/status/1610551066873192448
referring to https://twitter.com/mh_almahdy/status/1610540253185560578 (photos)
(A P)
Reported today the violent tragic death of a man in #Yemen, Amran as #Houthis instructed his 3 kids, who attended Houthi indoctrination summer school, to kill him. Houthis called him a "hypocrite" for preventing his kids from joining the militia. His children beat him to death
The tragic consequences of indoctrination are being felt in #Yemen. The killing of relatives increased in #Houthi areas, incl. murdering little girls in honor crimes, according to Yemeni NGOs. This underscores the dangerous consequences of extremist ideology on innocent lives.
https://twitter.com/YemeniFatima/status/1609702134353887232
(A P)
Sanaa announces its position on agreements concluded by pro-coalition government
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Sanaa government, Hussein Al-Ezzi, on Monday said that Sanaa does not recognize any agreements with the government appointed by the Saudi-led coalition countries.
This comes in coinciding with this authority’s conclusion of a deal to sell the port of Qishn in Mahra province to the UAE.
https://en.ypagency.net/283055/ = https://hodhodyemennews.net/en_US/2023/01/03/deputy-foreign-minister-yemen-does-not-accept-any-deals-made-with-puppet-government/
(A P)
Judicial Council discusses with Bar Association issues related to protection of rights
The Supreme Judicial Council on Monday discussed with Head of the Bar Association and members of the association the coordination and legal aspects to enhance the lawyers' role in achieving justice and contributing to the protection and defense of rights.
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3217633.htm
My remark: There had been reported that the Houthis have detained the head of Bar Association.
(* A B P)
Rights watchdog: Yemen Houthis use prisoners for political extortion
The head of the Yemeni Abductees' Mothers Association, Amatusalam Al-Hajj has accused the Houthi rebels of using the prisoners and abductees issue as a bargaining chip for political gains, calling for the release all detainees without condition.
Speaking to Al Araby Al Jadid on New Year's eve she said; "We are approaching 2023, and our children are still suffering in Houthi prisons, and some of them have spent more than seven years in captivity."
She added that the prisoners' exchange file is still pending between the various parties and the UN envoy's office, and every once in a while, we "hear" the Houthis and the government exchange accusations about its delay while our "sons are the victims, and their families and mothers suffer greatly."
Al Hajj called for the immediate release of all the civilian because they did not participate in carrying arms or in fighting, and their cause is "purely humanitarian."
(A P)
Houthis ban any kind of celebration, including DJ, bazaars, without prior permission from them in Sana'a (document)
https://twitter.com/Alsakaniali/status/1609624075214757888
Houthis continue to build their police state in Yemen. January 1, 2023, Houthis prohibit owners from renting halls for weddings or any celebrations without prior approval from Houthis ministry of culture in Sanaa
https://twitter.com/Ndawsari/status/1610329080670597120
and also https://twitter.com/RepYemenEnglish/status/1610340339453140992
(A P)
Al Mahwit condemns Houthi killing verdicts
Local Authority of Al Mahwit governorate has condemned the execution rulings issued by the Terrorist Houthi militias against six persons of the governorate three of them have been kidnapped and enforced disappeared for more than seven year.
The six unfortunate fellows were accused of fabricated charges, subjected to different forms of cruel torture and prosecuted through sham trials have nothing to do with justice and law.
http://en.adenpress.news/news/37079
(*A P)
Houthis in Yemen abduct social media influencers in a crackdown on dissent
Stories continue to emerge of ongoing gross abuses by the Yemeni Houthi movement against Yemeni civil society activists in the capital Sanaa, and in other areas under their control.
This week, three well-known Yemeni YouTubers have been kidnapped by Houthis in Sanaa, as the militia steps up its crackdown on online influencers who expose its leaders’ flaws, according to the newspaper Arab News, published on Wednesday,(4 January).
Activists reported that Houthis abducted Mustafa Al-Mumari, Hamoud Al-Mesbahi, and Ahmed Elaw for posting videos on social media which support prominent YouTuber Ahmed Hajar, who was seized from a Sanaa street more than 10 days ago.
The social media posts also criticized widespread corruption and the failure to address famine.
Al-Mumari is a popular social media personality in Yemen with more than 2 million YouTube subscribers and tens of thousands of Facebook fans.
He had earlier appeared in a video in which he sharply criticized the Houthis for kidnapping his friend, Hajar.
He urged the Houthis to combat rampant institutional corruption, and named some “corrupt” Houthi leaders.
He added: “If you are trustworthy and searching for the corrupt, I will provide you with evidence.
“If my claims are untrue, put me to death; if they are genuine, hold those (corrupt officials) responsible.”
Al-Mumari and Al-Mesbahi were kidnapped from a street in Sanaa and taken to a security facility shortly after the video was posted.
Elaw had made a video on his channel three days ago demanding the release of his detained friends, and warning the Houthis against ignoring corruption or popular unrest.
https://www.commonspace.eu/news/houthis-yemen-abduct-social-media-influencers-crackdown-dissent
and
(A P)
Yemen's spy agency (led by the Houthi) detained Yemen's well known Youtubers: Ahmed Hajar, Ahmed Alaw, Mostafa al-Mumari, & Mahmoud Almosbahi for posting videos criticizing corruption by the Sana'a government's. Release them now. Criticism is not a crime!
https://twitter.com/AhmadAlgohbary/status/1609593609212366850
When the journalist violates the law; I support his referral to the Press and Publications Prosecution to adjudicate any violation committed by him or the person responsible in accordance with the Press and Publications Law of 1990 Prisons turn the owner of any case into an eternal enemy. The imprisonment of Abdul Karim Al-Khaiwani, Muhammad Al-Maqaleh and others by the previous authority turned them into its eternal opponents!
https://twitter.com/Naseh_Shaker/status/1609987372493463554
Article (13) of the Press and Publications Law: A journalist may not be held accountable for the opinion he issues or the journalistic information he publishes, and that this should not be a cause of harm to him, unless his act was contrary to the law. Journalism is a profession and it must remain so! traps | Muhammad Ayesh | Ahmed Hajar Identity Channel (with film)
https://twitter.com/Naseh_Shaker/status/1609987368857047046
(A P)
PM praises continuous efforts to implement taxes of national vision
Prime Minister Dr. Abdulaziz Saleh bin Habtoor affirmed that the Salvation Government is working at a high pace to implement its procedures, projects and executive programs for the national vision for building the modern Yemeni state.
https://www.saba.ye/en/news3217527.htm
(A P)
Yemen: Houthis kidnap Bar Association president
Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthis stormed the headquarters of the Bar Association in Sanaa on Saturday and kidnapped the organisation's president.
Private sources told YemenShabab.net that members of the Houthi group stormed the union's headquarters and kidnapped its President, Abdullah Rajeh, and took him to an unknown destination.
There has been no comment from the Bar Association.
The body had recently announced its intention to hold a meeting to discuss the violations that lawyers are being subjected to by influential persons in the Houthi-controlled judicial institutions or by militia leaders.
On Tuesday it called on the Houthi-led Interior Ministry to protect its headquarters and secure its meeting.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20221230-yemen-houthis-storm-kidnaps-bar-association-president/
(A P)
Film: Activists circulated a video footage showing #Houthi gunmen in Sana'a while storming a shop & assaulting a citizen, who was one of the witnesses in a murder case committed by a Houthi leader belonging to al-Saqqaf family
https://twitter.com/RiyadhAldubai/status/1608798399041794048
(A P)
Film: “These brave women & gentleman - school teachers - are fighting armed Houthi militants to prevent the Houthis from using their school for recruitment & raising money for fighting
https://twitter.com/yemeniradar/status/1605294466692272146
(B P)
From an Innocent Child to a Dead Recruit #Houthi group took 14-year-old M.A.M.A. in 2017, with other children under 18, from his home in Al-Odain, #Ibb Governorate, in a compulsory recruitment campaign by Houthis in conjunction with fighting in Al-Bayda, Saada and southern Hodeidah fronts at that time. After his return from the front, the child was liquidated on August 24, 2017 following a dispute between him and members of #Houthi group regarding financial benefits that the child demanded before a militia gunman shot and killed him
https://twitter.com/ycmhrv/status/1610033678247399424
Fortsetzung / Sequel: cp6 – cp19
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-836b-yemen-war-mosaic-836b
Vorige / Previous:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose/jemenkrieg-mosaik-835-yemen-war-mosaic-835
Jemenkrieg-Mosaik 1-835 / Yemen War Mosaic 1-835:
https://www.freitag.de/autoren/dklose oder / or http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm
Der saudische Luftkrieg im Bild / Saudi aerial war images:
(18 +, Nichts für Sensible!) / (18 +; Graphic!)
http://poorworld.net/YemenWar.htm
http://yemenwarcrimes.blogspot.de/
Liste aller Luftangriffe / and list of all air raids:
http://yemendataproject.org/data/
Untersuchung ausgewählter Luftangriffe durch Bellingcat / Bellingcat investigations of selected air raids:
Untersuchungen von Angriffen, hunderte von Filmen / Investigations of attacks, hundreds of films:
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