writer : Micheal N.
You may have heard someone referring to this country as a "Failed State." Why? Because this country struggles to provide its citizens with a. Safety, b. Welfare, and c. The rule of law. In 1990, Germany was reunited, and in the same year, just a few months earlier, so was Yemen. For those unfamiliar with Yemen, it's located south of Saudi Arabia and west of Oman. Currently, it has a population of 33 million, but back in 1990, it was only 13 million. It has a high birth rate, but life expectancy is only around 65 years, compared to 80 years in the UK.
So, let's delve into Yemen's history. Today's Yemen was once divided into the Yemen Arab Republic and the Democratic Republic of Yemen (also known as South Yemen). In the north were the Sunnis, and in the south were the Shiites. Just a reminder: Sunnis and Shiites are two different branches of Islam, akin to Catholics and Protestants in Christianity. However, Yemen's reunification was far from peaceful, as the Shiites felt underrepresented.
The Houthi Rebellion emerged as a Shiite uprising against the Sunnis, Americans, and Jews, primarily targeting Sunnis in their own country. In 2004, the situation escalated into a civil war between the Houthis and the Yemeni army. The situation worsened in 2011. In 2012, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had been Yemen's president for 34 years, resigned, and Mansur Hadi took office. Despite his efforts, the situation did not deescalate.
In 2015, the Houthis stormed the parliament, declared themselves the government, and Mansur Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia. Since then, Yemen has plunged into chaos worse than ever before. Currently, the country faces severe shortages of water, food, medication, electricity, and more. Shockingly, a child in Yemen dies of hunger or illness every ten minutes.
The Houthis have been consistently financed by Iran, while the Yemeni army is backed by Saudi Arabia. These two nations, being Sunnis and Shiites, are historical enemies and often support rival militias in places like Syria. Unfortunately, there's no end in sight to the chaos in Yemen at the moment.
Thank you for reading my article. I understand that this topic can be quite depressing, so I'll do my best to cover a less somber topic next time.
Sources: Google (for population and life expectancy statistics), "Nie Wieder Keine Ahnung" (written by Tim Schreder and Jennifer Sieglar)