the Political analyst, writer and former Somalia Special Envoy to the U.S Abukar Arman said that in the twenty-first century, the most prevalent model of ‘liberating’ defenseless nations from despotism, sectarianism, and terrorism is to turn them into playgrounds of hell. Following that deadly model, Saudi Arabia led a coalition that launched a military campaign in early 2015 to help ‘save Yemen from ‘Shia dominance,’ or Iran.
Now in its third year, the war in Yemen continues to worsen, with no end in sight. The situation is violently swirling into a pandemonium of mass destruction and catastrophic human suffering that makes Israel’s ruthless blockade and overall atrocities executed in Gaza seem mild.
Ironically, Israel is a Saudi ally in this whole catastrophe. However, unlike the U.S. and U.K., much of what Israel offers in this anti-Iran strategic collaboration is kept behind the scene; kind of.
The kingdom has ‘drunk the Kool-Aid’ regarding the urgency to intervene in Yemen before Iran takes over the entire region. This paranoia also paved the way for kingdom’s purchase spree of heavy weapons, take persecution of the Saudi Shia minority to an unprecedented level, and get on the conveyor belt for implosion or what I call junglification.
While Yemen is notoriously a clannish society that is on a par with Somalia and Libya, foreign elements have been making matters worse. Foreign-funded clan-based militias are mushrooming across Yemen.
The consequence of the blockade on the Houthi-held areas has been catastrophic. 60 percent of Yemeni people “don’t know where their next meal will come from.” This alarming number was revealed in a joint statement issued by the World Food Program, UNICEF and the World Health Organization. Not to mention cholera epidemic, malnutrition and the severe shortage of medicine and nutritional supplements.
Airstrikes have been relentless and extremely reckless. There have been a number of attacks on civilians, hospitals, neighborhood areas that compelled rights groups such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) to charge that Saudi brutality rises to the level of crimes against humanity.
