Yemen is topping the list of International Rescue Committee (IRC) countries that are being watched due to the increased civil war that has been going on for five years. The civil war has seen 3.65 million people being displaced in Yemen since 2015. Also, about 24 million Yemeni nationals are under humanitarian care; therefore, this makes the country’s civil war top the list of humanitarian crises worldwide (Williams et al., 2020). This paper seeks to understand the causes of the Yemen crisis, the methods used to resolve this crisis, the weaknesses, and strengths of these methods, and recommendations for the resolution of the conflict. Partitioning in Yemen is the best way to resolve the Yemen War.
Yemen is a middle eastern country that has been at war for five years running, this is due to conflicts between the leadership in South and North Yemen having ideological differences. The two parties, the Houthis from the north and Abrabbuh Mansur government from south Yemen, have been trying to defeat each other with the aim of being the leaders of the country. The struggle was increased by the entrance of other parties interested in the country’s leadership, such as al Qaeda and the Southern Transition Council (Williams et al., 2020). Yemeni citizens have been facing the effects of the civil war that has now turned out to be a proxy war after different foreign governments tried to intervene and put an end to the conflict.
Besides, the Saudi Arabian attacks have made things worse in the country as its bombardments on Iran have caused a lot of damage in Yemen. This has also brought about the exposure of Saudi Arabia to attacks by the Houthis. Recently the Houthi rebels attacked the Aramco Company, where they killed more than 500 soldiers and took an additional 2000 captive (Williams et al., 2020). The Saudis had been blocking access to humanitarian aid in Yemen for the Houthi, making the leader of this group seek peace through every means available such as coercion and negotiation (Williams et al., 2020). After the Aramco company’s attack, the Saudis did not want anything to do with the Houthi Peace plan. Since then, the conflicting parties’ bargaining positions have been changing as the Houthi Rebellion has gained more strength, and the Saudis have seen a decline in power and strength due to many internal conflicts.
However, the parties have been engaging in negotiations with each other to end the conflict so that the Yemeni people could enjoy peace. For instance, the Houthis attacked the Saudis when they refused to consider the Houthi peace plan (Williams et al., 2020). Negotiations are still ongoing, but nothing much has been discussed as some of these parties want to rule the whole country by themselves. This makes it hard for the other parties who also want a share to accept (Williams et al., 2020). The negotiation strategy had several strengths as it seemed that it would ensure that the crisis would be solved without the need for war, but it failed when the Houthi attacked the Saudi company Aramco. The strategy also failed because different parties were not willing to forego their interests. The negotiations also take a lot of time to reach an amicable consensus; hence, it is not the best method to resolve this conflict.
Nonetheless, since parties want control over south Yemen, while others wish to rule North Yemen, dividing the county into two will be the best option. Partitioning Yemen among different parties can work perfectly well as the Houthis are powerful and control north Yemen. Giving them that region to rule will be an excellent idea. In the south area, forming a coalition between the Hadis government and STC would also ensure that peace prevails (Williams et al.,2020). The three parties can gang up against al-Qaida and defeat them, and afterward, Yemen can become a peaceful country and a good example to the rest of the middle eastern region. This partition deal will be the best option for ending the civil war in Yemen as if they try to give the Houthis total control over the whole of Yemen, the people of South Yemen may rebel against them, and they may have a war conflict once again. The same case applies to STC and Hadi’s government; being given total control of Yemen could bring about more conflict and rebellion from Houthis. Al Qaeda is not a party that values peace; hence trying to form a peace treaty with them will be impossible. Therefore, partitioning the country seems like the ideal strategy to follow in ensuring the Yemen Crisis comes to an end.
The Yemen Crisis has lasted for a long time and this has made the country to be destroyed and turned into a battlefield. The time has come to ensure that the crisis ends so that the Yemeni people can enjoy peace. Partitioning the country between the conflicting parties into north and south will work for resolving the conflict as other strategies seem to be failing.
Reference
Williams, P., Graham, L., Johnson, J., Scharf, M. P., & Sterio, M. (2020). Untangling the Yemen crisis. Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, 52.