Yemen is at the epicenter of national and international interests at odds with each other and battling for supremacy. At the heart of the turmoil is Iran, financing and weaponizing the Houthis in order to establish a strong Shia presence on the Arabian peninsula and a continued front against Israel – to replace the weakened Hezbollah and Hamas. The burden of suffering has fallen on the hapless people of Yemen. They continue to bear the human cost.
Today’s catastrophe started in the sadly misnamed “Arab Spring” uprisings of 2011. Inside Yemen they took the shape of mass protests against the long dictatorial rule of its president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. He was forced to step down in favor of his vice-president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. In 2015, Hadi sponsored a revised constitution for Yemen that proposed a federal system split between northerners and southerners, but the Iran-backed Houthi rebels rejected it.
The Houthis are a fundamentalist Shia group. The ex-president, Saleh, although a Sunni Muslim, decided to collaborate with them in a bid to return to power. It was through Saleh that the Houthis were able to gain control of most of the Yemenite military, including its air force. As a result, and supported with military hardware from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, they overran large tracts of the country, including the capital city, Sanaa.
Saudi Arabia, determined to prevent Iran from gaining a foothold on the Arabian Peninsula, formed a coalition to support Hadi’s government and intervened in March 2015 to beat back the Houthis. The internal struggle for power has continued ever since.
A significant moment came in April 2020, when a body calling itself the Southern Transitional Council (STC) was formed, declaring that south Yemen was breaking away from the national government and would henceforth rule itself.
Since then, a UN-engineered truce between the warring parties was achieved but never renewed. Yemen has staggered on, much of its people subsisting in abject poverty.
Three main groups are fighting each other – the Houthis, the internationally recognized government, and the STC – but other smaller bodies are also involved, including local militias, tribal forces, remnants of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and ISIS.
Since Hamas’s bloody assault into Israel on October 7, 2023, Yemen has also become the base for the Houthis’ military effort in support of Hamas. At Iran’s behest, the Houthis virtually declared war on October 19, 2023, when they launched missiles and armed drones at Israel. They have since attacked dozens of merchant and naval vessels in the Red Sea that they declare, often erroneously, to have some connection with Israel.
The retaliatory bombing, drone, and missile attacks by the United States, United Kingdom, and other national forces on Houthi missile sites and its military infrastructure have only added to the misery of the population. Since March 15, 2025, the US has conducted over 200 strikes, resulting in significant casualties among Houthi forces and also, unfortunately, collateral damage to the population.
President Donald Trump has recently intensified his rhetoric and actions against the Houthis. On April 4, 2025, he shared drone footage on his Truth Social platform depicting a US airstrike targeting approximately 70 individuals identified as Houthi militants. Trump stated that the group was assembling to plan attacks on commercial shipping and declared, “They will never sink our ships again!”
Yemen being on verge of catastrophe
On March 25, the UN children’s agency (UNICEF) pinpointed precisely this Houthi-controlled western coastal area of Yemen as being on the verge of a catastrophe due to the lack of food and water.
“Half of all children under five are acutely malnourished,” UNICEF official Peter Hawkins told reporters. “Among them, over 537,000 suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) – a condition that is agonizing. Equally alarming, 1.4 million pregnant and lactating women are malnourished, perpetuating a vicious cycle of intergenerational suffering.”
The next day, Yemen’s looming disaster was highlighted by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which warned of a widening chasm between rising humanitarian needs and the funding needed to alleviate them.
The IRC, founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, is a global humanitarian organization that provides emergency aid, long-term assistance, and advocacy for refugees and displaced people worldwide. It estimates that in 2025, some 19.5 million people in Yemen will need humanitarian assistance and protection – 7% more than in 2024. Yet, it emphasizes, the humanitarian response remains critically underfunded. The estimated humanitarian budget of $2.47 billion is only 5% funded so far.
In 2024, just over half of what was required was actually delivered, forcing aid agencies to scale back essential support, such as food distribution, and limit access to clean water and other services.
Caroline Sekyewa, IRC’s country director in Yemen, said: “For 10 years, Yemenis have endured relentless conflict, economic collapse, and limited access to lifesaving health and nutrition services. Humanitarian aid has been their lifeline. For donor governments to consider reducing or removing that support is not just short-sighted but puts millions of lives at risk... After a decade of crisis, political solutions and economic recovery are now needed more than ever to secure long-term stability. Yet the fact is that today, aid is what stands between life and death for millions.”
So the IRC is calling for renewed donor support to match the scale of the need.
Sekyewa said, “2025 must be a turning point in this crisis. With needs steadily increasing, we call upon all donors to step up and ensure that this year’s humanitarian needs and response plan is fully funded.”
Meanwhile, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg continues his efforts to establish a lasting ceasefire in Yemen. In January 2025, his office conducted a series of political dialogues in Aden involving civil society representatives, political parties, and other actors to foster an inclusive peace process. Nothing of substance was achieved.
In January 2024, the Security Council issued a resolution demanding that the Houthis cease their attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea. After continued violations, Grundberg urged the Security Council in October 2024 to unite in halting the attacks. A second resolution followed in January 2025. Both resolutions were ignored.
Yemen, a country spread across the base of the Arabian peninsula, was described by the Romans as “Arabia Felix” – happy, fortunate Arabia – an epithet that would certainly not apply in more modern times. Its present situation, and that of its population, is dire. However, the world’s attention seems to be directed elsewhere.
The writer is the Middle East correspondent for Eurasia Review. His latest book is Trump and the Holy Land: 2016-2020. Follow him at: www.a-mid-east-journal.blogspot.com.