What will end the war in Yemen?

The Inquiry

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.6 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2022

⏱️ 23 minutes

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Summary

One of the world's largest humanitarian crises plagues the people of Yemen who have endured nearly eight years of civil conflict in the country. Over half the population struggles to access food, poverty is rife, and cholera is spreading. Meanwhile, three separate forces compete for control of Yemen. Backed by powerful foreign players, is there anything that can bring these warring factions to the table to find a peaceful resolution?

Tanya Beckett takes a closer look at what stands in the way of peace in Yemen.

Producer: Christopher Blake

(Armed Yemeni supporters of the Iran-backed Houthi movement rally in the capital Sanaa 27/01/2022. Credit Mohammed Huwais /Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the inquiry. I'm Tanya Beckett, each week one question for expert witnesses and an answer.
0:19.0	On January 17th, the war in Yemen took a devastating new turn.
0:25.0	Multiple drone and missile attacks started spilling over into the United Arab Emirates.
0:31.0	The UAE doesn't share a border with Yemen but is one of the three main foreign powers in the region which have taken sides in the war.
0:40.0	Both Iran and Saudi Arabia have also been heavily involved.
0:46.0	So far the conflict has lasted over seven years, left hundreds of thousands dead and half of the population on the brink of famine.
0:56.0	But then like many moments in this terrible war after a couple of days of headlines, the world once again turned away and the fighting continued.
1:07.0	This week on the inquiry we're asking why is there still a war in Yemen?
1:17.0	Part one, the seeds of conflict.
1:25.0	The fighting at its most basic level stems from who controls territory, power and resources.
1:33.0	The fertile lands of Yemen have long drawn the envious gaze of foreign powers.
1:39.0	The country boasts abundant natural resources including copper and oil.
1:45.0	Do its west lie the waters that connect the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean.
1:50.0	Our first expert witness is Elizabeth Kendall, senior research fellow in Arabic and Islamic studies at Oxford University's Pembroke College.
2:00.0	Yemen is situated in that corner of the Arabian peninsula that has about 2,000 kilometres of coastline but most importantly that bit around Aden that controls the access to the Red Sea.
2:14.0	So that's a really important shipping route.
2:16.0	For over a century Yemen's southern port of Aden was controlled by foreign powers.
2:22.0	First Britain from the late 1800s then the Soviet Union.
2:27.0	Meanwhile Yemen's north was part of the Ottoman Empire.
2:31.0	When that fell 100 years ago, North Yemen eventually became a country in its own right and some years later joined up with the south.
2:41.0	Yemen is a relatively new state, only unified into what we now call Yemen in 1990.
2:47.0	But originally it was a collection of smaller sultanates, Emirates, shaykhdoms and in the north an imamate.
	...

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