Yemeni Civilians Suffer Famine, Mass Casualties in Ongoing War

Sana’a, Yemen after an air strike
Credit: Almigdad Mojalli/VOA via Wikimedia Commons

Due in large part to an ongoing civil war as well as high levels of poverty, civilians in Yemen face a worsening food crisis, death and injury due to direct targeting in the conflict, and other human rights abuses, including forced displacement, sexual abuse, child marriage, and harassment of journalists and human rights defenders. [UN News Centre; OHCHR Press Release] See UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Situation of Human Rights in Yemen, UN Doc. A/HRC/33/38, 4 August 2016. An estimated 17.1 million of the country’s 27.4 million residents are currently considered food insecure, meaning they lack “secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life.” [UN News Centre] In addition to food insecurity, from October 2016 to March 2015 over 4,000 civilian were estimated to have died in the conflict. [OHCHR Press Release: Briefing; OHCHR Press Release: Civilians; Washington Post; IRIN] Yemen is a State party to the Geneva Conventions and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and, therefore, it has an obligation not to target civilians during conflict and to respect the right to life.

Current Situation

The number of people struggling to feed themselves in Yemen has increased expeditiously, growing by an estimated 3 million in the past seven months. [UN News Centre] Agricultural production, which is the primary source of livelihood for most Yemenis, has dropped significantly. [UN News Centre] The “unprecedented” food crisis has predominantly affected certain vulnerable groups, including women and children. [UN News Centre]

The famine has had a profound impact on the nation’s children, who are experiencing “some of the highest numbers of malnutrition…in recent times,” according to a representative from the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF). [UN News Centre] The UNICEF representative explained that malnourished children have a much greater risk of death than their healthy peers. Moreover, the children who do survive may face developmental disabilities. [UN News Centre]

In addition to suffering a food crisis, Yemeni civilians have been targets in the ongoing conflict. The intensity of the current conflict has precluded human rights monitors from confirming the exact number of civilian casualties, but reliable reports indicate that civilians have been shot at while attempting to flee and that more than 200 houses have been damaged or destroyed by airstrikes thus far. Civilians and civilian objects have recently been targeted in the southwestern port of Al Mokha, and a reported 11 civilians were killed and four others injured in a house hit by an airstrike on January 22. [OHCHR Press Release: Civilians] The Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) has also documented previous attacks since 2015 on civilians and civilian sites, such as attacks on markets, weddings, and funerals. See Situation of Human Rights in Yemen, paras. 24-32.

According to an OHCHR report from last year, the conflict has resulted in forced displacement, sexual and gender-based violence, lack of access to education for children, and harassment of journalists and human rights defenders. The OHCHR found higher levels of sexual violence of women and girls and of forced marriage. See id. at paras. 61-62. The report also documented several incidents in which hundreds of people were forcibly evicted each time. The evictions were sometimes based on common accommodations and other times based on the evicted individuals’ place of origin. See id. at paras. 63-64.

Furthermore, the report demonstrated the impact on children, citing that as of June 2016 over two million children in Yemen were not attending school. See id. at para. 60. Additionally, more recent reports from civil society suggest there is an increase in child marriages due to high levels of poverty linked to the ongoing war. [IRIN]

Journalists and human rights defenders have been the target of detention, disappearances, and harassment. According to a report from last August, authorities raided several human rights organizations between July 2015 and June 2016 and prevented human rights defenders from traveling abroad. See Situation of Human Rights in Yemen, paras. 51-58.

History of Armed Conflict in Yemen

Yemen’s civil war began in 2015 when rebel Houthi forces effectively overthrew the government of Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. [HRW: Yemen; BBC] Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president, had been forced to hand over power to Hadi in 2011 following an uprising; however, Hadi faced insurmountable challenges, such as corruption and continued loyalty to Saleh within the military, and failed to bring the anticipated stability to Yemen. [BBC] Upon being ousted, Hadi moved to Saudi Arabia where he reestablished a government. [HRW: Yemen]

Houthi forces along with security forces fighting on behalf of Saleh have since fought to retain control of the nation, while opposing forces, with the aid of military powerhouses such as the United States and United Kingdom, have fought to reinstate Hadi’s government. [BBC] Both Houthi and pro-government forces have employed airstrikes or fired rockets indiscriminately, in violation of the laws of war. [HRW: Yemen] These practices have been detrimental to civilians, at least 4,000 of whom are estimated to have been killed since the beginning of this conflict. [Washington Post] Over two million Yemenis have been internally displaced. [UNHCR]

Yemen’s Human Rights and Humanitarian Obligations

As a State party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Yemen is obligated to protect the rights to life, liberty, and security of the person, among others. Additionally, as a State party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the State must ensure children’s rights to life and the highest attainable standard of health, which includes access to adequate nutritious food.

Yemen is also a State party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict; and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

As a State party to the Geneva Conventions, Yemen must abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention, which affords protection to civilians during armed conflicts and specifies that individuals not actively engaged in hostilities must be treated humanely at all times.

Commentary

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has expressed fear that the situation in Al Mokha will be recreated in Al Hudaidah, as airstrikes in that area intensify. The High Commissioner, describing the current state of affairs as “a calamitous situation that was entirely man-made,” called on the warring parties to “spare the civilian population” in respect of their obligations under international humanitarian law, which prohibits intentional, direct attacks on civilians or civilian objects. [OHCHR Press Release: Civilians] Civil society organizations have criticized actors on both sides of the conflict for engaging in violations of the laws of war, without being held accountable. [HRW: Accountability]