5/15
UK Aid just completed the first phase of a cholera vaccination campaign in five districts around Aden. The upcoming rainy season increases the risk of cholera, but these vaccines are expected to protect 455,000 people.
A US airstrike reportedly killed three alleged al-Qaeda agents in the southern province of Shabwa.
In Italy, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), the Yemen-based Mwatana Organization for Human Rights, and the Italian-based Rete Italiana per Il Disarmo jointly filed a criminal complaint in a public prosecutor's office. The complaint names both an Italian arms manufacturer and the Italian government agency that approves arms exports. The organizations want to prove that Italian weapons were used in an illegal airstrike in Yemen and investigate Italy’s criminal liability for the attack.
4/9
Last week, the Houthis killed dozens of Sudanese troops in an ambush, which provoked intense fighting between the coalition and the rebel group. The coalition now claims it is close to driving the Houthis completely out of Midi, a district in Hajjah. The Coalition made this same claim in 2016.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) recently released a plan of action to enhance food security in Yemen between 2018 and 2020. Right now, 17.8 million Yemenis are food insecure and 8.4 million are severely food insecure.
4/2
A coalition airstrike killed 14 civilians and wounded 9 in a residential area in al-Hudaydah. The majority of the victims were women and children trying to escape the heat in their homes. The coalition said these strikes targeted a Houthi military gathering.
Peter Salisbury warns about growing southern autonomy in a new Chatham House report titled “Yemen’s Southern Powder Keg.” He urges the international community to integrate southern voices into the peace process. He classifies Yemen as a “chaos state,” which means it consists of warring mini-states. One such de-facto state is the south, which has gained greater autonomy as the war has progressed.
3/18
Kristine Beckerle, Yemen and UAE researcher at Human Rights Watch, wrote an op-ed in the Huffington Post urging Congress to call out Saudi Arabia for their human rights violations while Mohammed bin Salman is in Washington.
In November, The Project on Middle East Political Science at George Washington University brought together scholars from Yemen, Europe, and the United States to discuss the situation in Yemen. This workshop produced a series of short papers that illustrate the fractional nature of Yemen’s war and contemplate the challenges behind any future negotiated settlement.
1/30
In a new report, Stacey Philbrick Yadav argues southern fighting is evidence that Yemen’s civil war is actually a series of mini-wars. This fracturing is not considered in formal diplomatic processes, which is a major cause of the diplomatic standstill.