The United States has supported the Saudi Arabia-led airstrikes in Yemen for the past three years, but it may soon take on a larger role in the war-torn country. Saudi ally United Arab Emirates has reportedly asked the United States for help to capture a key port from the Houthi rebels — a move that could result in major casualties and hamper the flow of goods into the country.
As The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, the U.A.E. wants the United States to aid in the capture of the port of Hodeidah, which is the main point of entry for goods into the country, including humanitarian aid. The United Nations special envoy to Yemen is hoping for an agreement that would avoid an all-out assault on the port.
Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. have already taken control of other ports, and some 20 million people in need of humanitarian aid in the country rely on aid being able to flow through Hodeidah.
Humanitarian agencies have already warned of what would happen if the port becomes a flashpoint in this fight: The densely-populated port city would yield major casualties in any fight, and a port shutdown would mean 90 percent of the supplies coming into the country would be cut off.
– The food chain.
– The health-care system.
– The education system.
– The sewer and water system.These have all collapsed in #Yemen.
— ICRC (@ICRC) June 4, 2018
Last fall and winter, Saudi forces shut down air and sea routes in the Yemen, saying they wanted to block weapons coming into the hands of the Houthi rebels. What they did, however, is cut off food and medical supplies to a country on the verge of famine and reeling from a deadly cholera outbreak (which happened as a result of the war).
While a U.S. official told the WSJ that the United States is not “100% comfortable” that an attack on Hodeidah wouldn’t end in an catastrophe, the fact is, what’s happening in Yemen right now is already, at the very least, a humanitarian catastrophe, something U.S. lawmakers are acutely aware of.
The United States sold billions of dollars in weapons to Saudi Arabia last month and provided intelligence and refueling capability to the Gulf Arab country in its efforts to help the Yemeni government fight the Houthis.
Since Saudi Arabia got involved in the fight in Yemen, the casualties have been stacking up at an alarming rate. According to the U.N.’s Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR), since the start of the war in March of 2015 to May 2018, an estimated 6,385 civilians have died and 10,047 have been injured.
Of these 16,432 civilian casualties, the OHCHR has determined that over 60 percent of them were results of Saudi-led coalition airstrikes.
The U.N. Human Rights Council is also investigating Saudi Arabia for crimes against humanity in its role in Yemen, where it has targeted schools, community halls, markets and clinics with its airstrikes.
Meanwhile, the airstrikes continue to tear through the the country, terrorizing civilians. Local reporter Ahmed Abdulkareem documented one strike over the weekend in the capital of Sana’a, where homes were struck and children were killed.
Among the dead was 13-year old Amin Al Wazi, who wandered the neighborhood streets allowing residents to use his digital scale for a small fee:
Come rain or shine, the cold of winter or the searing heat of a Yemen summer, he was there at first light to eke out something resembling a living for himself and his family. The nearby shopkeepers erupt in anger at the discovery of his body, and curse the Saudis who accuse Houthi rebels of being proxies of their historic rival, Iran.
“He was no Iranian expert,” cries out Ali Ahmed, the owner of a nearby restaurant, as he scrambles past capsized plastic white tables and splintered blue tiles. “He is a young boy; he was no Houthi leader. Are we carrying a missile ballistic platform? Are the civilians from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards or Hezbollah?”
The Saudis, along with the U.A.E., have also angered locals — and government officials — by taking over the islands of Socotra Archipelago, Yemen’s wondrous, natural treasure.