What Is The Yemen Conflict Really About?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2015
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In a matter of months rebels have swept through Yemen, capturing the capital, forcing the president into exile and causing hundreds of casualties as a simmering conflict has exploded into war. But the causes are complex and confusing. The Houthi rebels are from Yemen’s north, and are now laying siege to the southern port of Aden. Are these geographical rivalries the key?
The Houthi are Shia Muslims, supported by Iran. The rest of Yemen is mostly Sunni Muslim, and Saudi Arabia is leading a bombing campaign against the Houthi forces. So is this a sectarian conflict, or even a regional proxy war? And the Houthis have allied with former President Saleh, against Yemen’s current leader who replaced him in the transition after Yemen’s 2011 revolution. Are the roots of the current conflict in the failure of that revolution to deliver progress? Four expert witnesses help to disentangle this complex web and explain what the conflict in Yemen is really about.
(Photo: Houthi supporters demonstrate against recent UNSC sanctions. Credit: Yahya Arhab/European Photopress Agency)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. BBC World Service. This is Helena Merriman with the inquiry. |
| 0:47.0 | Last week, Sarah Jamal woke up to silence. |
| 0:55.0 | No traffic in the street, no hum from the fridge. |
| 1:00.0 | It was the third day in a row without power. |
| 1:03.7 | She'd have to throw away more food and there'd be no running water again. |
| 1:09.4 | But it's her neighbour she's most worried about. She has a five-year-old son. He's diabetic. His mother and |
| 1:16.5 | Sarah spent the whole day searching for a generator and a fridge to store his |
| 1:20.9 | insulin. These are the everyday challenges of life in Sonar, the capital of Yemen. |
| 1:29.0 | Once a busy metropolis, now a ghost town, |
| 1:33.0 | town, the near silence punctuated by this. |
| 1:37.0 | Ayrstrikes from Saudi planes targeting Houthi rebels who now control much of the country. |
| 1:48.0 | The President, Mr Hardy, called on Saudi Arabia for help after he fled the country in February. |
| 1:55.0 | Next, Huthy rebels have their sights set on the South. |
| 1:59.0 | Hundreds have now been killed and thousands injured in a conflict that's brought the country |
| 2:04.8 | to the edge of civil war. |
| 2:07.3 | These are the headlines, but there's a more complex story to tell. |
| 2:11.6 | So this week we're asking, what's the conflict in Yemen really about. |
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