Today, Explained - We need to talk about Yemen

Episode Date: June 29, 2018

The Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s travel ban this week, making it all but impossible for the citizens of seven countries to enter the United States. One of those countries is Yemen, which the United Nations says is undergoing the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet. International Crisis Group’s Joost Hiltermann explains how things got so bad, and why they could get a lot worse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All together now, Uber is moving forward, listening to feedback so they can improve and get better with every trip. They're building new features to take the stress out of your pickup and working on ways to keep you better protected and connected throughout your ride. You can find out more by going to uber.com slash moving forward. Shortly after we put out our show yesterday, we found out that about 30 miles east of our office in Annapolis, Maryland, a man entered the newsroom at the Capital Gazette with a shotgun and started shooting at employees. He killed five of them. Rebecca Smith was a sales assistant.

Rob Hyasson was an editor and columnist. Wendy Winters was a correspondent. Gerald Fishman was the editorial page editor. And John McNamara wrote about sports. The shooter wanted to kill journalists for doing their jobs, for reporting the news. And he did. In our show's short history, we've covered these mass shootings in America several times. On one episode, we talked about something called learned helplessness.

We hear about these shootings. We feel sad. We feel like there's nothing we can do. We move on. Our show today isn't about this tragedy, but my team and I wanted to do something. As journalists, we wanted to say something. We mourn the loss at the Capital Gazette, a newspaper that's been publishing in some shape or form since 1727. And today, after suffering a tragedy, after losing their newsroom, after losing five colleagues, they still published.

A few reporters and a photographer made today's paper from the back of a pickup truck in a parking lot last night. It's in print. It's online. We hope you'll take some time to go read it. The Supreme Court upheld President Trump's travel ban this week. Seven countries are affected by it. North Korea, Venezuela, Syria, Somalia, Iran, Libya, and Yemen. It's hard to say which of these countries is hit hardest by the ban, but one of them is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet. The casualties of Yemen's war go way beyond the bombs and bullets.

The disaster hidden from the world's eyes is malnutrition. One and a half million children are suffering and the pediatric emergency unit in Sana'a is under terrible pressure. Yemenis can't afford food. Some can't even find it. A crisis that's been worsened by the Saudi blockade of ports and border crossings, which has limited food and humanitarian supplies. Many can't even get their hands on clean water. Health officials say it's the fastest spreading cholera epidemic in history. I've been to Yemen and I fell in love with it at first sight. Joost Hilterman works at the International Crisis Group.

It has a very long and rich cultural history. And the architecture is astonishing. The artwork is likewise so. And the people, of course, while being desperately poor, compared to, say, their golf neighbors, are ever so welcoming and friendly and nice. The Yemen he remembers is basically gone. Yes. So more than 8 million people at the moment, out of a population of 27 million, are on the verge of famine, which is almost impossible to imagine. The economic situation is desperate, the humanitarian situation is horrendous and people are literally going to starve if the various sieges

that have been imposed by the various military actors continue. I know this conflict in Yemen is incredibly complicated and involves many different parties. To get an idea of the sort of politics of the country and the geography, what do people need to know about where Yemen is, where it's situated, who its neighbors are, to understand everything that's going on right now? So it's located on the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, so south of Saudi Arabia. The coastline is partly Red Sea and partly the Gulf of Aden and then toward the Indian Ocean. And the coastal people are very much a mix and the cultures are very much a mix, typical of coastal regions anywhere and it's a it's a country of 27 million people

very poor resource poor it was a real problem with water scarcity and the country has some oil but that is running out you know it has basically been sort of the neglected member of the of the Arab world so in addition to being resource poor, the country is going through a civil war right now. How did it start and when? There were two states, northern Yemen and southern Yemen. South Yemen was a socialist republic during the Cold War, and the two parts were unified after the end of the Cold War. But then there was a brief civil war in the 1990s.

The country since, or throughout this period, was under the control of a single autocrat by the name of Ali Abdullah Saleh. He was essentially pushed aside after the Arab uprisings of 2011. But he still had many loyalists within the army. In September 2014, they took over the capital Sana'a and forced the government to flee. They pushed them aside and put in a transitional government under a different president, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

Taking over from his boss, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had led the country for three decades. And then there was a national dialogue process that was going to tackle all the difficult questions that Yemen faces, including what should happen to the south, for example, that used to be independent. And that national dialogue process fell apart, and that's what triggered the civil war.

Hadi struggled to impose his authority in a country riddled with poverty, the spread of armed groups and corruption. He also couldn't fend off the rising influence of the Houthis, who had taken control of the northern province of Saada and the capital Sanaa. And that was in 2014. In late 2014, the Houthi rebels who had been fighting the now former autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh during the odds, they stormed into the capital but allied with the forces of this former autocrat because he had been

displaced by this new transitional president. The Houthis, a Shiite sect, also distanced themselves from Sunni terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS. They are critical of the United States, but they told me what they're really angry about are the American-backed dictators in the region. And then after a few months, they deposed the sitting government and then tried to seize control over the entire country.

That triggered foreign intervention by a coalition of states led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. And that's three years ago. And so that's been going until now. You've got 30 years of a dictator, an Arab Spring uprising, things fall apart, civil war, rebels take over. And now Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are getting involved. So who's actually in control of this situation and are they actually in control? It's the Houthis because they are in control of the north where the bulk of the population lives. But their control is not 100%.

Yemen is a tribal society as well. And the Houthis have support of some tribes, and their enemies likewise. And why are other countries getting involved in this resource, poor country's civil war? Is it turning into a proxy war? What do other countries want from this conflict? Well, it's more what they don't want in the case of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. They don't want a Yemen run by the Houthis

because they see them in the end as an Iranian proxy. When it comes to Iran, they're not involved directly in the conflict, not in the way they're not fighting, they're not sending their aircraft in that direction or anything like that. But for Iran, it's been an easy way to keep Saudi Arabia on the back foot, because the real conflict for Iran is not in Yemen, but in Syria. And to the extent that the Gulf states played a role in the Syrian civil war and threatened the reign of Bashar al-Assad, who is supported by Iran, Iran felt threatened by these Gulf states.

And so this is a cheap way to keep them on the defensive, because the Houthis have been very effective at blocking any kind of military success on the part of the Gulf states. So they've been heavily involved for the last three years, mostly Saudi Arabia, through airstrikes mainly. Key infrastructure and hospitals have been hit. Over a 12-month period, the UN estimated 60% of casualties in the war were caused by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes.

There have been numerous child victims. And the United Arab Emirates in the south, also by deploying troops on the ground and fighting also against Al-Qaeda, by the way, which has had holdouts there. And just comparing this to the conflict in Syria, which you mentioned, the United States is obviously heavily involved in that conflict, as is Russia.

Are these massive proxy powers that aren't in the Middle East involved in that conflict, as is Russia. Are these massive proxy powers that aren't in the Middle East involved in this conflict? Well, the United States very much is. It is supporting militarily one side in the conflict. Saudi Arabia and the UAE and the United States is providing critical intelligence and it's providing in-air refueling of aircraft. And of course, Western states generally, and I'm talking about Britain and France and the United States, are all selling weapons to the UAE and to Saudi Arabia, and they're not strictly for defensive purposes. So clearly it can be used in a war that, you know, international organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International

have already said, have seen war crimes being committed by the targeting of civilian areas. They targeted my house while there were 18 to 20 guests. The whole family was inside. Everything is gone. There's nothing left. So this is a very serious matter. And the United States has been a staunch supporter. Of course, it's been a staunch ally of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia for a very long time. And this war, which started during the Obama administration, I think the US has allowed to continue through its support, in part because at the time there

were negotiations over the Iran nuclear deal, and the Obama administration needed the support of the Saudis and Emiratis not to block this deal. So they provided sort of lukewarm support to this coalition in the war against Yemen. And then with the new administration coming in, U.S. support has continued to flow to the Saudi-led coalition. I wonder, with this conflict that seems to have lasted the civil war formally four years, but this conflict seems to date back even longer than that, no end in sight, it sounds like. What's the impact on civilians, on people who aren't involved in the conflict at all and just waiting for stability?

As you can imagine, it's horrendous. This was already the poorest country in the Middle East. And now war and displacement are adding to it. And then what has been the worst has been the sieges imposed. So UAE and Saudi Arabia have imposed a naval blockade, essentially. And then they want to take the port of Hodeidah, but I think they want to take it mostly because they want to defeat the Houthis once and for all. And they know that if they can take that choke point, the situation would become very difficult for the Houthis in the Northern Ireland.

The civil war in Yemen just entered a new phase, and that means the world's worst humanitarian crisis could get even worse. That's next. Hello. Hi. How are you? Good. This is Instagram's video chat. Wow.

The first time I'm using it. Did you get a haircut? Yes. Looks great. Yeah? Yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. It was getting messy.

I think the ends are getting dead. So I don't know. You know what isn't dead? Uber. They're moving forward, listening to feedback so they can improve and get better every trip. They're building new features to take the stress out of your pickup and working on ways to keep you better protected and connected throughout your ride. You can find more by going to Uber.com. Moving forward.

Too slow, chits. A major military operation is underway. Yemeni government troops are on the move to take the port of Hodeidah from Houthi rebels. Warplanes and warships of the Saudi-Emerald Coalition have also launched strikes on the city. Joost, all the news about Yemen right now is about this one port, the port of Hodeidah. What's so critical about it and what's going on there? In the last month, the UAE is leading an assault or supporting by air an assault by local Yemeni allies, including the current legitimate government or remnants of it,

in a fight against the port city of Hodeidah, which is controlled by the Houthis, and through which 70% of Yemen's goods arrive in the country. So the fear is that if that port gets cut off, then the food crisis will increase dramatically. Just this one port? This is where most of Yemen's imports come through, yes. Now, when the Houthis took control of Yemen in 2014 and 2015, they also took control of this port city. And have held it since then until today.

In May, a campaign started to retake parts of Hodeidak province from the Houthis. And the Emiratis were able to use their Apache helicopters and naval power to strafe the Houthis who had no defenses against that. And reinforcements are joining soldiers on the ground for what many say is a decisive battle for control of northern Yemen. Now, in the last couple of weeks, the fighting has reached the outskirts of the city and these forces took the airport a week ago. But it's not clear that they fully control the airport even. The Houthis say they also still control it.

And so it is still contested. The UN says nearly 5,000 families have had to flee their homes to stay alive. We were safe at home when pro-government forces and Houthi rebels started fighting continuously. We managed to flee, but some others were killed or got stuck. So now there is a bit of a pause which gives time for the United Nations envoy, Martin Griffith, to mediate a solution. And he is busy working on that, talking to all sides, the Houthis, the Emiratis, the Saudis, the Americans, the everybody's. So now we have to see. But the Emiratis have made clear that after a few days they will resume the fight.

And then the question is, will these forces go into the city itself? It's a city of 600,000 people. And will Hodeidah be destroyed the way we've seen happening with Mosul and Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor and Fallujah? You know, this certainly is also a possibility, a horrible one. Displaced Yemenis are seeking shelter from not only street fighting but also aerial attacks. Some of the families caught in the crossfire are camping in schools or makeshift shanties. We started walking, carrying our children while the Apache helicopters hovered above. We were scared not knowing whether we'll be shot or not.

We prayed we wouldn't get hit. There was nothing we could do. Now, what may happen is that if the Houthis are driven out of Hodeida, that they will come back to the negotiating table, that they will feel the pressure, they will feel the heat, and they will say, it is time to negotiate, and we'll work out a deal. Because in the end, the Houthis are Yemenis, they are not outsiders. And they do represent not just themselves, but the sentiment of a significant portion of the northern population. It's not just some little group that has implanted

itself. It has legitimacy. And so it has to be dealt with, not militarily, but politically in the end. Is there like a good side and a bad side? Is there a side to be supporting in all of this? Or does it all look sort of sketchy? You know, all sides have legitimate grievances. They've all made mistakes. Some of them have committed war crimes. But that said, they're all, in a sense, legitimate actors, and that includes the Houthis. And even Saudi Arabia, which says that the Houthis are supported by Iran,

and there's some truth to that, will admit that the Houthis are a legitimate domestic Yemeni actor and should even have a role in future governance. From the Saudi point of view, it should just not be able to dominate it. Have you been in contact with Yemenis in the country recently? I'm wondering, after years of war and instability and now famine and cholera and a travel ban to boot. Is there still hope? Are people holding on to something? It's very hard to make generalizations, but you can see that people have grown very cynical. People feel that, you know, this war is being fought over their heads, that they don't actually

have a stake in this so much. They have a stake in the outcome, but not in the fighting. And so they're despondent because there are other parties that are taking decisions about their fates. It's so easy now in the entire region

to find people who are suffering desperately. So Yemen is no different from that. But it's just horrendous and it is spreading and there doesn't seem to be any stop on it. The United States is either standing back or encouraging it. Other states too. I don't want to single out the United States here, but it's still the most powerful country in the world and with preponderant influence in the Middle East in particular.

And negotiated solutions are few and far between. The United Nations is at times making heroic efforts at mediating and bringing the parties together, but without unified international support, it will not work. Joost Hilterman is a program director for the International Crisis Group. I'm Sean Ramesverum. This is Today Explained. I missed you this week doing Uber ads without you.

It wasn't quite the same, you know? Oh, I see. You don't have time for Uber ads. No, I do, I do. I will always make time for more Uber ads. In that case, let me just let you know that Uber has turned the page and is is moving forward the company's goal is to improve the experience for both riders and drivers they've been listening to feedback working on ways to keep you better protected and connected during your ride so they can get better with every trip and you can find out more by going to uber.com slash moving forward teamwork makes the dream work, mom. Hey, big week of news from the Supreme Court, huh?

I know. So much going on. I know. A podcast where you can learn more about it is the Political Gab Fest. No, it's the Political Gab Fest. Oh, Political Gab Fest. Have you listened yet? I did last week.

Well, new episodes come out every thursday so yesterday so you know the three hosts emily bazlan and david plots and john dickerson they get together and they break down the most important political stories of the week and i think their work's cut out for them this week mom i'm going to listen to that today where are you going to subscribe to that podcast apple podcast nice did Nice. Did I get it right? You did. That's also a place where you can rate and review today. Explain it and review.

I've been doing that for today. Explain that. I will do it for that test too.