June 12-19: Senate Resolution of Disapproval Nearly Passes; Airstrikes on Market Kill 25

Monday, June 12

The Intercept reported that the Trump administration made its argument in favor of an arms sale of over $500 million to Saudi Arabia in a top-secret briefing organized by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Yemen Peace Project Advocacy Director Kate Kizer said of the meeting, “It’s really unfortunate that Senate majority leadership decided to hold this briefing in secret. Americans deserve to know the conduct of our allies, especially when the U.S. is intimately involved in starving potentially millions of Yemeni civilians by continuing to provide unconditional support to the Saudi-led coalition.”

Prison diary: The 64th Day

We're pleased to publish this guest post by Dr. Abdulkader Alguneid, a physician and activist from Ta'iz. Dr. Abdulkader was kidnapped from his home by Houthi fighters in August 2015; he was released after 300 days of illegal imprisonment and torture in May 2016.

It was mid-day, and I was in a tight, dim cell with two companions.

The clanging sound of the iron door being unlocked came suddenly and loudly, startling and unnerving us. These doors never opened, day after day and month after month, except for the most unusual, or for taking an inmate out for interrogation or something unpleasant.

UNSC issues Presidential Statement on Yemen

The United Nations Security Council released a presidential statement today regarding the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The statement expresses concern about the humanitarian impact of the conflict, highlighting the cholera epidemic and the risk of famine. It calls on all parties to the conflict to adhere to international humanitarian law, emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between civilians and combatants in selecting targets, of allowing unhindered access for the distribution of humanitarian aid, and of ending the recruitment and use of child soldiers.

Fractures in the Houthi-GPC alliance

We're very pleased to publish the second of two guest posts on the tensions within the Houthi-GPC alliance. The views of the author do not necessarily represent those of the YPP.

Yemen is in the midst of the third year of its civil war. Starvation and disease are rampant in the poorest country in the Middle East; there is still no light on the horizon. In seeking to understand this war, we cannot find satisfying and logical answers without first asking the right questions. Hence, this piece will be humbly dedicated for laying bare some personal thoughts, as an ordinary citizen in this perplexing war-torn country, and specifically in San’a. 

UAE implicated in crimes & sanctions violations in Yemen

The Just Security forum urges the United States to reconsider its support to the United Arab Emirates’ operations in Yemen due to concerns over apparent violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. Rahma A. Hussein, a human rights lawyer and writer for Just Security, states in her recent report that the UAE’s actions in Yemen raise important legal and policy concerns. Another piece by Ryan Goodman and Alex Moorehead points that the UAE military and the UAE-backed forces have potentially violated international humanitarian law through enforced disappearances and the mistreatment of detainees.

Short-Term Economic Recommendations for Yemen

On June 5th, the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies published a policy brief containing a series of short-term recommendations as a part of their larger “Rethinking Yemen’s Economy” initiative. The Sana’a Center based the brief on the outcomes of a recent meeting of the Development Champions Forum, a group made up of Yemeni politicians and scholars, during the World Economic Forum in Amman, Jordan. The brief emphasizes the need for a varied international approach focused on stimulating the collapsed Yemeni economy. The recommendations are divided into three categories: the food security crisis, the insecurity of the banking sector, and the absence of basic public services.

Growing support for Senate resolution to block Saudi bomb sale

Next week, the US Senate will vote on Senate Joint Resolution 42, a resolution that blocks the planned sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia. Human Rights Watch and the UN Panel of Experts have documented numerous instances of Saudi Arabia targeting civilians in Yemen with US-sold weapons. The Obama administration suspended this sale of precision-guided munitions because of its concerns over Saudi Arabia’s actions in Yemen. S.J.Res 42 seeks to reinstate that suspension. Several organizations and individuals have pledged their support for the resolution, emphasizing the importance of avoiding additional US complicity in a war riddled with violations of international law and promoting the peace process rather than escalating a military campaign that has little chance of success. Below are a number of organizational statements and op-eds making the case for S.J.Res 42.

Congress must investigate military's use of humanitarian logistics networks in Yemen

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Scott Darden, an American citizen who served as Yemen country coordinator for logistics firm Transoceanic Development, maintained secret ties to the United States military during his time in Yemen.

Darden, who was detained for several months by the Houthi militia in 2015, worked on behalf of the New Orleans-based company to manage shipments for humanitarian organizations including UNICEF and ICRC. He also oversaw Transoceanic’s offices in San’a, Aden, and al-Hudaydah. At the same time, he and his employer secretly worked with the American military to assist with logistics for Special Operations units.

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41 NGOs to Senate: Block PGM sales to Saudi Arabia. Vote for S.J.Res.42

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The YPP, along with 40 other national and local organizations, sent the below letter urging Congress to vote in support of S.J.Res.42 to block the pending $510 million arms sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia. Recently, bipartisan members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives introduced joint resolutions of disapproval to block the sale of these weapons due to their repeated use against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Yemen. 

Risks to Gulf states posed by Yemen's civil war: Incentives to invest in reconstruction

A recent report from the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, authored by senior resident scholar Karen Young, discusses the Yemen civil war and its cost for Yemen’s Gulf neighbors, urging Gulf Cooperation Council states to end their contributions to the cycle of violence in Yemen. The report notes that the future cost of the ongoing war for Gulf states may be greater than GCC states anticipate due to the reverberations that civil wars tend to have in neighboring states. The author makes policy suggestions for GCC states that seek to minimize the impact of the war in Yemen both on Yemeni society and on Yemen’s neighbors.

May 30-June 5: Government blocks press access; intra-coalition skirmish in Aden

Tuesday, May 30

Adam Baron of the European Council on Foreign Relations writes about the state of affairs in southern Yemen, and listed three actions that European governments can take to help stabilize Yemen. The first is reaching out to the secessionists in the south of Yemen, and recognizing them as key players in the conflict. The second is to bolster law and order in the city of Aden.Finally, Europe should increase coordination with the Gulf States on both stabilization and mediation efforts.

UN Relief Chief and Mwatana Chair address UNSC meeting on Yemen

Stephen O’Brien, the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, delivered a statement to the United Nations Security Council during last Tuesday’s Council meeting on Yemen. O’Brien spoke of the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, warning that the situation there had become the world’s largest food security crisis and that lack of access to food and clean water created the conditions for the cholera epidemic. While he lauded the United Nations and its partners, along with medical personnel in Yemen, for their work to stem the spread of cholera and other diseases, he criticized the parties to the conflict for putting their own interests above the needs of the Yemeni people, explaining that both lack of access to food and disease are, in the case of Yemen, man-made phenomena that could be avoided if the parties were willing to negotiate an end the conflict.

The dynamics of the Houthi-GPC alliance

We're very pleased to publish the first of two guest posts on the tensions within the Houthi-GPC alliance. The author is an activist based in San'a, who writes anonymously for personal and professional reasons. The views of the author do not necessarily represent those of the YPP.

The intensifying conflict in Yemen has created a complex political situation with overlapping factors imposed by the nature and structure of the conflicting forces within Yemen. We believe that this political situation can only be understood by analyzing the contexts in which these events and reality were born, as well as the reasons behind them. This article presents a perspective on the political situation in Yemen and the role of the conflicting parties within Yemen, particularly in areas under the control of the Houthis.

ABA report: US Arms Sales and Military Assistance to Saudi Arabia Prohibited Under US law

The American Bar Association (ABA) recently delivered a white paper authored by Vanderbilt Law professor Michael Newton to the US Senate that assesses the ways in which US arms sales and military assistance to Saudi Arabia violate existing US laws. Because of Saudi Arabia’s gross and consistent violation of the human rights standards outlined in the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act, the paper recommends that arms sales cease until Saudi Arabia complies with international humanitarian law.

May 23-29: Cholera on the rise, US kills civilians in Marib raid

Tuesday, May 23

The Associated Press reports that US special operations forces raided a suspected al-Qaeda hideout in the al-Sarim area of Marib Governorate. US Central Command claimed that at least seven militants were killed, possibly more. Later, it came to light that at least five civilians were killed, including an elderly man and a teenaged boy. It was the second publicly-acknowledged ground raid US forces have conducted in Yemen this year. The first, conducted in January, killed 25 civilians and sparked international outrage.

Deadly US Raid in Marib was Reckless and Counterproductive

WASHINGTON DC -- On 23 May, 2017, United States special operations forces conducted a counterterrorism raid in the Governorate of Marib. It was the first publicly acknowledged US raid in Yemen since a similar operation in January, an attack that resulted in the deaths of 25 Yemeni civilians and one Navy SEAL.

YPP and 21 other NGOs call on UNSC to act now

Yesterday the Yemen Peace Project and 21 other NGOs sent a letter to all members of the UN Security Council calling on them to take immediate action to advance peace negotiations and address the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen. The Council will meet to discuss the situation and hear an update from the UN Special Envoy on May 30. The full text of the letter is below.

UN Security Council must act to end man-made humanitarian crisis in Yemen

We the undersigned organisations call upon UN Security Council members to take action to bring about an immediate ceasefire in Yemen, end the humanitarian crisis and support the UN Special Envoy's efforts towards an inclusive political solution to the conflict.

San'a's isolation: Implications for peacebuilding

In a new publication from the International Crisis Group, the organization’s Arabian Peninsula Senior Analyst, April Longley Alley, discusses realities on the ground in Yemen’s Houthi-held capital, San’a. She focuses on the isolation of San’a from the rest of Yemen and its impact on locals; although food products are available in stores in San’a, the money to purchase them is dwindling for many families. Furthermore, the author emphasizes that the high numbers of civilian casualties that accompany Saudi attacks have turned public opinion against the Saudi-led coalition. Many feel a sense of solidarity with the Houthis as a result of both isolation from the rest of Yemen and indiscriminate coalition bombings; these combine to create an “us and them” mentality that pits San’a against Saudi Arabia, and locals feel angry toward both the Saudi-led coalition and the United States over the high number of civilian deaths.