Adel Doshela
What happened in 2014 will never be forgotten. It was the beginning of a civil war that has yet to cease. After the military coup in 2014 by the militias of al-Houthi who are supported by Iranian regime and the former president Ali Saleh — who ruled the country for more than three decades and was ousted as a result of a peaceful revolution in 2011, they decide to seal Yemeni’s fate. Al- houthi and Saleh did not foresee that Yemen will move very fast into a proxy war. In fact, their military coup guided the country to doom and destruction.
The serious repercussions of this military coup are as following: first, this absurd coup forced many Academicians and business men to flee Yemen. Most of them fled to Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Europe at the beginning of the military coup in 2014.
Second, this coup resulted of a humanitarian catastrophe. For more than two years resulted in thousands of casualties and deaths. According to the U.N, more than 10000 had been killed. More than 40,000 had been injured in this conflict.International Humanitarians’ Organizations stress that “Over 2 million Yemenis have already been forced to flee their homes and a staggering 18.8 million people remain in need of humanitarian assistance across the country. They desperately need food, water, sanitation and shelter”.
ٍSomehow, this failed coup helped radical movements to rule some Yemeni provinces as what happens in the South Yemen. For example, Southern Separatist Movement rules Aden by force. Al-Qaeda also governs some districts in the governorates of Abyan, Al Bayda and Shabwah. In addition, Houthi’s sectarian ideology broke down the national unity.
Moreover, this military coup created new warmongers. These warmongers do not believe in peace. They do not understand that Yemenis are the victims of this sectarian clash. They do not take care about civilians and destitute people. They want to keep their own interests at the expense of the innocents. Unfortunately, UN could not convince these militias to accept political solutions. The United Nation efforts to bring peace to Yemen have failed. For instance, it has hosted three rounds of the Yemeni peace talks – the first one in Geneva, second in Biel and the third in Kuwait. All these three round peace talks did not reach to a true peace. It looks likely that the upcoming peace talks will fail. This means that Yemeni peace talks face many challenges and difficulties. First, the militias of al-Houthi refuse to handover its weapons. Second, these militias and their ally will not withdraw their militants from the capital Sana’a, release political prisoners and journalists. At the same time, these militias refuse to handover the official institutions to the legitimate government. They want to impose their conditions, policy and ideology on others by negotiations or force and this is a part of their ideology. Moreover, Al-Houthi movement affiliates Iranian government. Therefore, they obey Teheran and its policy.
In my opinion, Yemenis cannot stop this absurd war without national reconciliation. Therefore, all the conflict-sides must make real concessions for achieving national reconciliation. First, they have to stop war in all provinces. Second, al-Houthi rebels and all the other movements have to handover their weapons, and then we can achieve political issues and national reconciliation. Furthermore, the movement of al-Houthi has to accept the international resolution no: 2216. It should accept the results of the Yemeni National Dialogue Conference. Then, we can reach to national reconciliation.
Adel Doshela is a Yemeni researcher and freelance Writer, currently writing his PhD in English Literature. Follow him in tweeter: @DoshelaAdel