Ten Years After Saudi Arabia's Intervention in Yemen, There Is Only Irreparable Loss

DAWN - "Keep Yemen weak," King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, is said to have told his sons on his deathbed. Whether those words were apocryphal or not, the sentiment behind them aligns with Saudi Arabia's long-standing geopolitical strategy toward its southern neighbor. Historically, Saudi policy has sought to maintain a balance of power in Yemen—strong enough to prevent total collapse and regional instability but weak enough to prevent it from becoming a powerful, independent state that could challenge Saudi influence. This approach was evident in past Saudi interventions in Yemen, such as its support in the 1960s for Yemeni royalists against republicans backed by Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Yet, exactly 10 years ago, just after midnight on March 26, 2015, Saudi Arabia broke with its traditional approach to Yemen when it launched heavy airstrikes on the capital, Sanaa. The Saudi aim, leading a military coalition that included other Gulf states, was to drive Houthi rebels out of Sanaa after they had effectively ousted the Yemeni government of then-President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. The Saudi-led military intervention, including its aerial bombing campaign that alone killed some 24,000 Yemenis, was not "limited in nature," as the Saudis promised, nor did it "protect the people of Yemen."

Instead, Saudi Arabia's disastrous intervention further fragmented Yemen. Control of the country today is still split between the Houthis, who are much stronger than they were in 2015 and have become the dominant force across northern Yemen; the weak internationally recognized government, mostly confined to Aden; and the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) backed by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia's one-time partner in its military coalition against the Houthis.

Ten years after the airstrikes began, the Saudi-led war against the Houthis has left Yemen in ruins, with no clear winners, only devastation. Every faction involved, from the Houthis to the Saudi-led coalition and their local allies to the coalition's Western backers, has contributed to the suffering. When the Houthis seized Sana'a in 2014, they set the stage for a long, unresolved war that risked drawing in outside powers. In another era, perhaps Saudi Arabia would have been more cautious, but with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman assuming more power under his father, King Salman, the prince pushed for what was widely seen by observers as "his war"—what quickly became "Saudi Arabia's Vietnam."

Every side in Yemen's war has been credibly accused of committing grave human rights violations and war crimes, contributing to the country's descent into hell. The use of starvation as a weapon of war—by both the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition—further underlined the brutality of this conflict. Every horror of war you can name has been carried out in Yemen. The United Nations estimated in 2020 that nearly a quarter of a million people had died directly or indirectly from the conflict, though most believe the toll is much higher. The warring parties have all failed to uphold even the most basic principles of international humanitarian law.

The Saudi-led intervention in Yemen had one main objective: reversing the Houthi takeover of Sana'a. It unequivocally failed in that mission. Instead, Saudi military adventurism entrenched Yemeni divisions, exacerbated humanitarian suffering across the country and left Yemen broken as a state. The consequences of this failure extend beyond the battlefield, shaping Yemen's political future and regional dynamics in ways that will be difficult to reverse. Saudi Arabia's failure isn't just military or political; it's a failure of logic and reason.

In the early days of the war in 2015, Saudi diplomats claimed to U.S. officials that they could defeat the Houthis in six weeks—a prediction that not only foreshadowed military disaster but political miscalculation. Rather than strengthening the Yemeni government as their intervention claimed to, the UAE, Saudi Arabia's main coalition partner, undermined stated Saudi objectives by backing rival Yemeni militias like the STC, which wants to secede and reestablish an independent South Yemen. This lack of a unified strategy turned the anti-Houthi bloc into competing power centers, weakening the coalition and prolonging the war—turning Yemen into a battleground of fragmented allegiances and an increasingly fractious, multi-front, multi-sided war.

Saudi Arabia's efforts to unify the anti-Houthi camp—through the Riyadh Agreement in 2019 and the Presidential Leadership Council that the Saudis engineered in 2022—faltered due to these deep internal rivalries and conflicting agendas, particularly between Saudi-backed Yemeni factions and UAE-supported forces like the STC. Instead of forging a cohesive front, Saudi machinations deepened existing divisions, with internal clashes persisting within the Riyadh-based Presidential Leadership Council. Competing Saudi and Emirati interests and the absence of any centralized command turned the Presidential Leadership Council into another battleground for power struggles within the anti-Houthi bloc.

But most importantly, on the ground in Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition's military failure was rooted in both strategic miscalculations and structural weaknesses. The initial assumption that air power and military superiority could swiftly defeat the Houthis underestimated their resilience and ability to adapt through asymmetric warfare, including drone strikes and other guerrilla tactics developed through years of insurgency in Yemen's northern highlands. The Houthis exploited every Saudi misstep, expanding their reach in Yemen and then launching sustained attacks deep into Saudi territory.

The Saudi-led coalition's failure to achieve its objectives, despite substantial military expenditures, has exposed deep vulnerabilities in Saudi Arabia's military capabilities, draining resources and raising questions about the kingdom's long-term economic stability. The protracted war has left Saudi Arabia vulnerable, which explains why Riyadh abruptly shifted to diplomacy over the past two years, in what has amounted to a significant retreat. Yemen's fragmentation, in a state of de facto partition, has made any cohesive political resolution increasingly elusive, reinforcing Yemen's instability and underscoring the risks Saudi Arabia created through its military intervention.

Instead of trying to reshape Yemen's political landscape, the Saudis are now focused on smaller issues, like border security. From its 2023 agreement restoring diplomatic ties with Iran, brokered by China, to the surprising visit in April 2023 by the Saudi ambassador to Sanaa, where he met with Houthi leaders, Riyadh has moved into damage-control mode. Saudi officials have been forced to adjust their approach, from bellicose rhetoric about driving the Houthis out of power to more modest aims of containing threats to the kingdom. This about-face reflects a recognition that military intervention alone cannot resolve the stalemate in Yemen.

The Houthi strikes in the Red Sea, targeting international shipping, U.S. naval ships and Israeli targets, in declared solidarity with Gaza, highlight the missteps of the Saudi war, which ended up elevating the Houthis as a regional actor. Once only a tribal insurgency with aims on northern Yemen, the Houthis now have global clout. The fact that both the Biden administration and Trump administration have ordered U.S. airstrikes against them only plays into Houthi narratives that they are leading the armed resistance to both the U.S. and Israel. But the Houthis' survival still ultimately depends on negotiation, not endless war. Despite the failed Saudi intervention, the Houthis have not won the war in Yemen, even if they have emerged stronger.

For Yemenis, the past decade has been a cascade of wasted years, shattered hopes and unimaginable suffering. The youngest generation has known nothing but the horrors of this brutal conflict. In gatherings today, people recount everything they have had to endure. A mother points to her 9-year-old son: "I gave birth to my son in a hospital while coalition bombs fell on the funeral hall. Remember that day? That's when he was born." Another father calmly describes how he lost his teenage son to a bullet fired by a Houthi sniper in Taiz. Yemenis joke darkly that by the time there is any real redress for all the war's destruction, it won't be enough to just rebuild. They would need these lost 10 years given back to them—an impossible demand for an irreparable loss.

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This article was first written for and published on the DAWN website. 

A Decade after the Saudi Military Intervention in Yemen: An Assessment

The Arab Center in DC - Exactly a decade ago, Saudi Arabia announced the launch of a military intervention in Yemen, promising to lead a coalition of more than 10 nations—although some would later end their participation—against the Houthi armed group, officially known as Ansar Allah, that had taken over power from President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. Backed by the United States, Britain, and other Western states with arms and shared intelligence, on March 26, 2015, the Saudi coalition commenced airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas, initiating a conflict that would drag on for years. Riyadh’s initial expectation of a swift, six-week military operation to defeat the Houthis became a prolonged and costly entanglement that has tested Saudi Arabia’s ability to impose its will on its neighbor and to force the Houthis to give up their control over a large part of Yemen.

Intervention Inception

Saudi Arabia’s rationale for intervention shifted over time as the conflict unfolded. At the outset, it cast the intervention as a direct response to President Hadi’s urgent appeal to the Gulf states and their international allies that he conveyed in a letter to the UN Security Council in March 2015. Hadi called for states “to provide immediate support in every form and take the necessary measures, including military intervention, to protect Yemen and its people from the ongoing Houthi aggression.” The Saudis initially conceived of the intervention as a decisive effort to reinstate Yemen’s legitimate government in the capital Sanaa. As the situation progressed, Saudi Arabia reframed its objective as restoring Yemen’s political process within the framework of the Gulf Cooperation Council Initiative, which in 2011-2012 facilitated the transfer of power from former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to Hadi.

The core rationale behind Saudi Arabia’s intervention, however, stemmed from its perception of the Houthis as an Iranian proxy on the kingdom’s border. Riyadh feared that Iran’s influence through the Houthis posed a direct threat to the kingdom’s regional dominance and interests. The kingdom saw the Houthi takeover of Sanaa not just as a challenge to Yemen’s stability but as a potential game changer in the broader Middle East power dynamics. In this context, Saudi Arabia framed its military intervention as a necessary response to protect its own security and regional influence.

But while Saudi Arabia believed Iran to be the principal force behind the Houthi takeover, the extent of Iranian influence over the group at the time was, in fact, relatively limited. Although the Houthis depended on Iranian military and logistical support, particularly for weaponry and strategic advice, they were not fully under Iran’s control. Iran, while capable of advising the Houthis on strategic and policy matters, lacked the leverage to dictate their actions. Rather, local factors such as longstanding tribal rivalries in Yemen, the Houthis’ longtime opposition to the central government, and their pursuit of greater political power, were more influential in shaping the Houthis’ behavior. The Houthi alliances with former President Saleh and certain factions of the Yemeni military also played a crucial role in the group’s rise. In other words, Iran’s influence was significant, but it was not all-encompassing, as the Houthis had their own political and strategic goals. Nonetheless, Riyadh persisted in portraying the Houthis as a tool of Iranian expansionism. Paradoxically, Saudi Arabia’s prolonged antagonism may have ultimately strengthened Iran’s influence, as it pushed the Houthi armed group to deepen its reliance on Iranian military and logistical support.

Successes and Failures

The Saudi-led intervention produced limited successes but was largely marked by strategic and operational failures. One notable achievement was the halting of the Houthi-Saleh alliance’s territorial expansion, particularly its advance into southern Yemen. By mid-2015, coalition-backed forces had managed to retake Aden and surrounding areas, reversing the Houthis’ gains in the south. Additionally, the coalition succeeded in 2016 in reclaiming Mukalla in the east after it had fallen under the control of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula for nearly a year.

Still, Saudi Arabia’s military campaign has largely failed to achieve its stated objectives, instead drawing global criticism for the immense toll that it has taken on civilian lives. The war has caused more than 375,000 deaths (most due to hunger resulting from the Saudi-led naval blockade) and the widespread destruction of Yemen’s infrastructure, exacerbating the country’s humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, the Houthi movement has maintained its grip on Yemen’s northern highlands, home to a majority of the country’s population. At the same time, the current internationally recognized government, operating under the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) headed by Mohammed al-Alimi, has struggled to assert its authority due to a combination of internal divisions, regional interventions, and the emergence of autonomous armed groups, operates primarily from its temporary capital in the south, Aden, while its members spend much of their time in exile in Riyadh, underscoring the Council’s political and military weaknesses.

Diverging agendas between allies also weakened the anti-Houthi coalition. In particular, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which other than Saudi Arabia was the actor most heavily invested in the conflict, often pursued divergent goals and tactics.

While Saudi Arabia primarily waged war on Yemen through airstrikes, financial and logistical support for anti-Houthi forces, and a comprehensive air, land, and sea blockade of Houthi-controlled areas, the UAE concentrated its efforts on southern and central Yemen. The UAE deployed ground troops and trained local Yemeni forces such as the Security Belt, the Elite Forces, and others, allowing it to exert indirect control over southern territories—an arrangement that former President Hadi once had likened to a sort of occupation. UAE’s proxy forces continue to control Yemen’s UNESCO-World-Heritage-Site Socotra island. Despite the UAE declaring in 2019 the withdrawal of its troops from Yemen, it continues to play a significant role. Crucially, Abu Dhabi’s hostility toward the Muslim Brotherhood led it to sideline Yemen’s Islamist Islah Party, instead aligning with the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and various Salafi militias. These alliances not only weakened the PLC but also contributed to the increasing fragmentation of Yemen, as areas nominally under government control are in fact under STC influence.

Whether or not the Saudi-led intervention was warranted, most assessments indicate that it lacked a legitimate foundation, as the conflict in Yemen originated as an internal struggle that should have been resolved by Yemenis themselves. The intervention internationalized the war, introducing power dynamics and external dependencies to Yemen that undermined prospects for a sustainable political settlement. By expanding and prolonging the conflict, the intervention eroded Yemen’s already weak sovereignty and deepened internal divisions, complicating efforts to restore national cohesion. Moreover, the intervention’s failure has weakened Saudi Arabia’s strategic position and strengthened the Houthis, allowing them to entrench their control over northern Yemen, to enhance their military capabilities, and to strength their political legitimacy. The prolonged military campaign has allowed the group to consolidate power, making a negotiated resolution increasingly difficult.

Saudi Arabia’s Strategic Recalibration

After several years of the intervention, Saudi Arabia’s approach in Yemen underwent a significant transformation due to a combination of pivotal events, including Saudi operatives’ 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the 2023 China-brokered agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore diplomatic relations, and Israel’s war on Gaza.

The assassination of Washington Post columnist Khashoggi in Istanbul severely damaged Saudi Arabia’s international reputation, particularly in the West, and provoked heightened criticism of its policies, including the war in Yemen. Germany and Denmark imposed arms embargoes on Saudi Arabia, citing the Khashoggi murder and the Kingdom’s actions in Yemen as central reasons. Faced with growing domestic and international pressure, Riyadh had no choice but to recalibrate its approach toward the Yemen conflict, shifting from military intervention to diplomacy. A recognition that its aggressive foreign policy risked alienating critical allies, particularly the United States which was under mounting domestic political pressure to curb arms sales to the kingdom, motivated the change. In this context, Riyadh’s move was about preserving vital geopolitical relationships rather than rethinking its regional ambitions.

The March 2023 agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, brokered by China, heralded Riyadh’s strategic pivot from confrontation with the Islamic Republic to containment. In the deal, Iran agreed to significantly reduce its support for the Houthis. For Riyadh, its priorities evolved, as the political costs of the war began to outweigh its strategic benefits, prompting a shift toward de-escalation. This led to an unprecedented visit in April 2023 by the kingdom’s ambassador to Sanaa, Mohammed al-Jaber—who had been recalled from the Yemeni capital years earlier—where he met with Houthi leaders. With the Saudi leadership now focused on domestic economic transformation under Vision 2030, the political cost of the war outweighed its potential strategic gains, pushing Riyadh to seek an exit rather than a military victory.

The Gaza war that began in October 2023 led Saudi Arabia to further recalibrate its calculus in Yemen, compelling Riyadh to avoid actions that might provoke retaliation from the Houthis. Saudi Arabia’s non-participation in Operation Prosperity Guardian—the US-led military campaign to safeguard the maritime trade routes in the southern Red Sea from Houthi attacks—along with its hesitancy toward US-UK military strikes on Houthi positions, underlines a broader shift. Riyadh no longer sees Yemen as a strategic battleground for confrontation. Instead, its primary concern now is de-escalation, fearing that renewed hostilities could undo its diplomatic progress with Iran and jeopardize its domestic and regional ambitions.

Yemen’s Complex Landscape

Over the past decade, Yemen’s political landscape has become more complex, marked by fragmentation, a persistent political deadlock, and a worsening humanitarian crisis. Initially a domestic player in Yemen’s internal power struggles, the Houthis have become a regional actor, evident in their strikes on Red Sea shipping, US warships, and Israeli targets in solidarity with Gaza. Today, with Iran’s regional influence waning, the Houthis are diversifying their alliances, courting support from Iraq, Russia, and even al-Shabaab in Somalia.

The Saudi-Iranian rapprochement has led to reduced Iranian oversight over the Houthis and led the group to become more autonomous, with more independent military capabilities. A 2024 report from the United Nations Panel of Experts on Yemen describes the Houthis’ efforts to cultivate a direct network of allies, bypassing Iran’s traditional intermediary role. Saudi Arabia’s greater flexibility in its dealings with the Houthis, driven by the rapprochement, has helped the Houthis to consolidate power.

As the Houthis have strengthened their position, the evolving dynamics on the ground have influenced broader regional and international strategies. The latest US airstrikes in Yemen mark a more aggressive American military strategy by directly targeting Houthi leaders rather than only their military assets. In addition, in contrast to the Biden administration’s generally more private pressure on Iran to stop supporting the Houthis, President Donald Trump has publicly and directly linked Iran to the actions of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, stating that “every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon… as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of Iran, and Iran will be held responsible.” This attribution may serve as a strategic pretext for American escalation against Tehran.

Yet the Houthis’ deeply entrenched military position, combined with Yemen’s challenging geography, diminishes the likelihood of Trump’s new campaign achieving a decisive military outcome. To address the growing Houthi threat most effectively, a comprehensive approach is required. Strengthening Yemen’s internationally recognized government and unifying its factions is crucial to offering a viable alternative to exclusive Houthi control. By consolidating political authority and addressing the underlying causes of the conflict, Yemen can present a united front and reduce Houthi influence.

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This policy analysis was first written for and published in the website of the Arab Center in DC. 

US air strikes against Houthis continue, rebel group say | BBC News

 

Detention in Yemen: When Imprisonment Becomes Fate and Death Fleeting News

Rabab Al-Mudwahi was returned to prison like stolen goods returned to thieves' vaults. The head of the Information Department at the National Democratic Institute (NDI) was only granted a brief respite from the prison walls, a fleeting moment of light that allowed her to bid farewell to her late mother. Just a few hours, then the iron gate closed again, as if she had never left, as if the grief she carried was another charge deserving punishment.

The death of Rabab's mother was not just a fleeting event in the saga of pain. It was a mirror reflecting the faces of thousands of mothers and fathers who had their loved ones ripped from them, snatched from their homes, their dreams, their lives, and thrown into windowless prisons. All the loss, all the helplessness, all the lamentation condensed in that moment when Rabab was returned to her cell, as if death alone was not enough.

But there is pain that cannot be spoken, pain no language can carry. It is the agony that gnaws at the souls of mothers and fathers when their imprisoned children die behind bars—alone, without a proper farewell, without hands to wipe their foreheads one last time. In prison, no one dies alone; with them, every feature their loved ones once knew perishes as well.

It was a shock, but not a surprise. Death in Houthi prisons is not an event—it is a calendar whose pages turn in a grim, cyclical pattern. This time, it was Ahmed Ba’alawi, a humanitarian worker with the World Food Programme, a young man who had dedicated his life to serving the hungry. The Houthi group arbitrarily detained him in January 2025, holding him in a prison in Sa’ada, their stronghold in northern Yemen, until his death was announced last month. But Ahmed was not the first. Before him was Hisham Al-Hakimi, the Director of Safety and Security at Save the Children, who was dragged to the same fate. Hisham died in October 2023 while in detention. Was it torture? Medical neglect? Or both, combined in the lethal formula perfected by Houthi prisons? It makes no difference. In the end, the result is the same—names erased, bodies discarded, and families left receiving condolences instead of reunions.

In June 2024, the Houthis launched a mass arrest campaign, as if indulging in their favorite hobby—hunting down free voices, suffocating hope, and silencing breath. Among the detainees was Rabab Al-Mudwahi. There was no reason for her arrest other than the fact that she worked with civil society organizations.

Days passed. Months. And Rabab’s mother waited. But waiting in Yemen is not just the passing of time—it is slow torture. She never saw her daughter before she died, never held her hand, never heard her voice. She died with only a frozen image in her heart—of a daughter snatched into the unknown, never to return.

And the tragedy? This is not the first story of its kind.

How many fathers have died of heartbreak? How many mothers and fathers have passed away while their sons and daughters remain arbitrarily imprisoned? The more loss repeats itself, the more familiar the pain becomes, as if this country knows nothing but tragedy. But the women of Yemen do not know surrender. Mothers and wives, activists and fighters—they have not grown weary, they have not fallen silent. They take to the streets, standing with exhausted faces and hoarse voices, demanding, shouting, raising pictures of their loved ones as if lifting their very souls.

From this pain, from this unhealed wound, the Association of Abductees’ Mothers was born in 2015. It was not just a human rights organization—it was a collective cry, a living testament that the tragedy will not be forgotten, that no matter how hard they try to silence the voices, they will keep echoing until the prisons collapse.

The Association does not stop at documenting kidnappings and enforced disappearances. It does not merely count names or record events. No—it lights its torches in the darkest corners, refusing to let those who have vanished into prison walls be forgotten. It does not just scream; it builds advocacy networks with human rights groups, mobilizes efforts in diplomatic offices, knocks on the doors of tribal leaders and sheikhs, and shatters the silence in meetings with authorities and warring parties. Inside Yemen, abroad, in every place their voices can reach, there is someone demanding, someone crying out:

Where are they? Why are they still behind these walls? Who gave you the right to steal their lives?

No exhaustion, no surrender, no stopping. Because justice is not just a slogan—it is a demand engraved in the hearts of mothers, in the eyes of fathers, in the clenched fists of all those who refuse to accept injustice as fate. The Association of Abductees’ Mothers seeks to bring the perpetrators to trial, punish the kidnappers, expose the criminals, and compensate the victims. Because pain is not healed by silence, but by accountability. Because suffering will not end until the last prison door is opened, until the last disappeared person is returned, until those responsible for all this devastation are finally told: You will not escape punishment.

833 cases of abduction and detention in one year. 833 lives torn away and thrown into prison dungeons. The 2024 report by the Association of Abductees’ Mothers reads like a long lament—a chronicle of pain, disappearance, and torture, a list of names whose owners have been swallowed by high walls.

754 cases were carried out by the Houthi group, 308 of which were mass arrests. 51 cases were committed by the UAE-backed Security Belt forces. 16 cases by Yemen’s internationally recognized government. 12 cases by the Joint Forces. In the end, it makes no difference. Everyone is complicit. Everyone has a prison. Everyone is skilled in the art of enforced disappearance.

103 people simply vanished. No letters, no phone calls, no trace. Only their families know what it means to have a loved one turned into a mere memory—a name floating in the minds of mothers who wait for a return that will never come. 84 cases of disappearance at the hands of the Houthis. The remaining cases were spread across different forces that have long practiced the crime of enforced disappearance. Torture is not an exception—it is routine. It is the language of communication inside these prisons.

The Association documented 58 cases of torture: 38 by the Houthis. 9 by the Security Belt forces. 6 by the internationally recognized government. 5 by the Joint Forces. But these are not just numbers. These are bodies stacked upon bodies, screams silenced, flesh torn by merciless whips. Six detainees never made it out. Not because they were sentenced to die—but because they did. They died under torture. They died from disease and neglect.

Then came May 31, 2024, and the horror began again. Within two weeks, the Houthis stormed homes and offices—not searching, but seizing. 13 UN employees. 50 civil society workers. All were abducted. And the world remained silent.

The cells are full. Only three were released—mere crumbs thrown to make the repression seem less cruel. One UN staff member and two from NGOs. But what about the rest? No one knows anything about them. Then came January 23, 2025—another round, another wave of blind repression. Eight more UN employees vanished as if the earth had swallowed them whole. All of them were detained without charges, without trial, without lawyers, without even a single message to reassure their families.

"The challenges facing Yemen today are immense… perhaps most notably, the continuous shrinking of civic space, particularly in areas under the control of Ansar Allah," said the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg. But words alone are not enough to describe the devastation. "The arbitrary detentions targeting UN staff, civil society, diplomats, and the private sector—along with the tragedy of our World Food Programme colleague who died in detention—highlight the growing risks and the shrinking space for those seeking to support Yemenis." As if to say: No one is outside the reach of repression. Everyone is a target. Anyone can disappear in the blink of an eye. No questions are asked. No justifications are given. They are simply taken.

And with time, names fade into oblivion, except for the mothers.

Mothers never forget.

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*This article was first written for and published in Arabic on the Daraj website. 

Listening to Yemen's Forgotten Voices

  

DAWN - Seventeen years ago, I embarked on a journey as a journalist, driven by a desire to uncover the complexities of Yemen, my homeland, for an international audience. Over the years, I have witnessed the ebb and flow of Yemen's tumultuous history—uprisings, wars, humanitarian crises—and with each event, I have found myself grappling not just with the challenges of reporting on the country, but also with the glaring inconsistencies in how the world perceives Yemen.

Time and again, I have seen international narratives reduce my country to a chessboard for global powers, sidelining the intricacies of Yemen's internal struggles and the voices of its people. The lack of comprehensive and contextual reporting, the marginalization of Yemeni voices in favor of outside ones, and the unbalanced focus on external actors without equal attention to internal dynamics and accountability all contribute to misunderstanding and misinformation. Those narratives eventually shape policies, influence public opinion and ultimately determine whose suffering is deemed worthy of attention.

I was born into a Yemen that was already making global headlines—but never on its own terms. During the long, authoritarian rule of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, international news was dominated by U.S. drone strikes targeting al-Qaida in Yemen, with little focus on or interest in the Yemeni civilians who were also killed in those strikes. The international media framed Yemen primarily as a battleground in the so-called war on terror, focusing solely on counterterrorism, with little or no accountability for those human rights violations.

Those drone strikes are associated perhaps most of all with Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric and jihadist who fled to Yemen and joined al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and was killed in a targeted strike in 2011. As the first American citizen ever targeted and killed in a U.S. drone strike, his death set off a debate about the legality of the strikes—but one that still largely avoided non-American casualties. (Under President Barack Obama, who ordered the strike on Awlaki, the U.S. conducted nearly 200 drone strikes on Yemen, killing up to 100 Yemeni civilians, according to New America. The U.S. government has never provided figures on civilian casualties from drone strikes.)

When the popular uprising against Saleh came in 2011, I watched as people took to the streets across Yemen demanding change, only to see their peaceful democratic movement reduced to a story about Saleh himself. International reports painted him as a "witty, sharp, defiant leader," a characterization that did not just overshadow the voices of the many protesters, but distorted the narrative of Yemen's popular revolution. The framing was clear: one man's political survival was more compelling than an entire nation's call for democracy.


When the Houthi insurgency advanced out of Yemen's northern highlands and captured the capital, Sana'a, in 2014, driving out the government of Saleh's successor, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, the pattern continued. Once the Saudi-led coalition intervened to try and oust the Houthis and restore Hadi to power, international media shifted its focus primarily to the coalition's airstrikes, which killed thousands of Yemeni civilians. But Yemenis were often portrayed solely as victims of foreign aggression. Meanwhile, domestic actors—from the Houthis themselves to Yemen's internationally recognized government to the separatist Southern Transitional Council and various other armed groups—were barely scrutinized, even though tens of thousands of civilians are estimated to have been killed in their civil war.

And then, when the Houthis began attacking ships in the Red Sea in 2023, which they portrayed as a campaign to defend Palestinians and force Israel to end its war in Gaza, the war in Yemen was no longer covered as a civil war. Now it was seen primarily through the lens of geopolitics and global security. The Houthis effectively took control of the Bab al-Mandab strait, a key maritime chokepoint at the mouth of the Red Sea, disrupting vital shipping routes in the Strait of Hormuz and the Suez Canal, with ramifications for global trade. However, most news coverage still only focused on the Houthis' strategic gains, with little attention to their abusive tactics toward their own people. Yemen's ongoing internal struggles—its fractured governance, its economic collapse, the daily suffering of its people—were pushed further into the background.

Through all these phases, the world's view of Yemen has been dictated by selective narratives—ones that elevate external interests, prominent figures or geopolitical conflicts, while ignoring the complexities of life within the country itself, its broader societal and political dynamics, and local Yemeni voices that could explain them. For too long, I have watched Yemenis struggle not only to survive their reality but to have it properly understood outside Yemen—and to have their voices heard.

Such a narrow view of Yemen perpetuates injustice by creating a hierarchy of suffering. The most attention, it seems, is given to those harmed by external actors, like the Saudi-led coalition, while abuses by Yemeni forces themselves, whether the Houthis or their various rivals, receive less coverage. This selective focus implies that Yemeni lives are only significant when their victimhood serves an external narrative, leaving countless civilians who suffer at the hands of local oppressors invisible. By ignoring or downplaying internal abuses, international coverage fails to hold armed groups in Yemen accountable and also indirectly empowers them, enabling their ongoing violations to continue unchallenged or under-reported.

Moreover, the way Yemen is analyzed internationally often fails to capture its full reality, reducing complex dynamics to simplistic narratives that do more harm than good. How often do international experts on Yemen engage with Yemeni scholars—citing their work, amplifying their voices or collaborating with them? Yemenis themselves recognize and deeply value the few that do; however this pervasive exclusion further marginalizes local perspectives and reinforces a distorted, outsider-driven understanding of Yemen.


I have worked with local media in Yemen, international media, local and international human rights organizations, and think tanks inside and outside the country. In every situation, there were obstacles in place against Yemeni voices. Beyond the language barriers—since I am not a native English speaker, I worked twice as hard to write and publish in English—the biggest problem I faced was the perception that I was not "objective." I was often told I could not quote Arabic media reports and could only cite English-language sources because English-speaking audiences might get "confused," even though Yemen's official language, of course, is Arabic. It explains why international outlets often reinforce their own narratives by quoting predominantly Western sources, rather than incorporating Yemeni perspectives.

There is also a tendency to dismiss Yemeni local media as somehow unreliable. While it is true that every country has both credible and non-credible media outlets, it is frustrating to see Yemeni media disregarded outright. There seems to be little effort to explore local Arabic-language media or collaborate with them (perhaps owing to language barriers and the lack of Arabic skills among Western journalists and editors). This exclusion does not just distort Yemen's story, it also marginalizes the very people who understand it best.

All the while, the lives of ordinary Yemenis go largely unnoticed, as if their stories are not worthy of attention unless they fit the contours of a global narrative. Some underreported local stories include those of civil workers, who once held the machinery of the state together but now live in a constant state of destitution, having gone without full salaries for years. Their struggle seems to fade into the background of a crisis that prioritizes more dramatic headlines. Millions of internally displaced people, forced to leave their homes in search of safety, face dire conditions that most cannot imagine. But their suffering goes largely unnoticed, a forgotten chapter in a larger, more complex tale. And then there is the corruption. Aid meant to help the most vulnerable has often been diverted, leaving those in desperate need without support. Successive crackdowns on journalists, United Nations staff, activists, lawyers, businessmen and others add another layer of oppression. The bombing of dissidents' homes, a tactic used to silence those who dare to speak out, terrorizes the population. These acts of violence are hardly mentioned by international media, as the focus shifts to more familiar narratives of war and politics.

Yemen's children bear the especially brutal weight of a war they did not choose. Forced into combat, they become soldiers before they are even old enough to dream of their future. Their innocence stolen, they are sent to fight in a war that promises nothing but pain. Their stories are often buried beneath the weight of political agendas. As the war drags on, education has become a casualty. Schools have been destroyed, and those that remain struggle to provide even the most basic education. The dropout rates climb higher, as children are pulled away from their classrooms to help their families survive. The dreams of a generation vanish, but the world hardly takes notice.

Yemen's most renowned poet, the late Abdullah al-Baradouni, has often captured Yemen's dynamic spirit in his poems. As he writes in his poem "Why I Am Silent About the Lament," "I am silent, not because I lack words, but because the words will not capture what is left behind." In the face of relentless suffering, Yemenis have chosen silence over despair. Yemen's resilience endures in unspoken acts of survival and resistance. Like al-Baradouni's refusal to lament, Yemen persists: "For how can I lament when grief has become the air I breathe?" If the world is to understand Yemen, it must listen to these quiet voices of resilience, who tell the true story of their country.


* This essay was first written for and published by DAWN here.