User:Joeyespm163ac/sandbox

The Yemen civil war started in 2015 due to political instability. Many academic research revealed that the war was partially driven by the environment and control of resources, especially water. This included Saudi Arabia and Yemen's border dispute on the Red Sea for resources as well as urban-rural water conflicts. About 70-80% of the conflicts are related to water since citizens are desperate for water and have been pushed to drastic measures, like joining Al-Qaeda . Kasinof's report published by ABC news concludes that the lack of water intensifies the conflict in Yemen, from demonstrations, riots to a war between the government and rebels. This article intends to explain how the environmental issues in Yemen contributed to the war and how the war affect both society and environment.

Original description: "Months after an airstrike on a neighborhood populated by black Yemenis, or "Muhamasheen," more than a hundred buildings still remain in rubble and survivors continue to search for any valuables, Sana'a, Yemen, Oct. 9, 2015. (Almigdad Mojalli/VOA)" http://gdb.voanews.com/0EE625A0-68D1-46E0-8628-AE3CE6B70E68_mw1866_mh799_s.png

With fuel almost impossible to get hold of in Sanaa, the water authority could not operate the network, so UNICEF worked with the Yemen Petroleum Company to buy fuel and organise water trucking to the most vulnerable parts of Sanaa. We are doing similar work across all parts of the country. Without clean water waterborne diseases are a certainty and put children at risk. https://www.flickr.com/photos/16935515@N00/17826534259

"Somali refugees who fled their country for Yemen to escape war and poverty are facing similar turmoil in their adoptive country and now want to return to their homeland. About 30,000 have been able to return to Somalia, some with the help of the Somali business community. Abdulaziz Billow was in Yemen and reports for VOA"

Yemen Civil War

Background & Brief Status

The Yemen civil war is an ongoing conflict that began in 2015. Political instability between two rival factions, The Hadi government and the Supreme Political Council (Houthis), led to the overtaking of Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. On March 21, 2015, the Supreme Political Council declared an official overthrow of the Hadi government. The SPC pledged to advance into southern Yemeni provinces to extend their power and rule.

With the Hadi government having pledged allegiance to former Yemen president Ali Abdullah Saleh, a violent conflict erupted. In late 2015, a Saudi Arabia led intervention in Yemen, began, fighting in unison with seven African nations. Code-named Operation Decisive Storm,  the operation fought against Houthi-led forces, supporting the former government. With Iran supporting and funding Houthi forces, and Saudi Arabia funding the Hadi forces, the yemen civil war is considered a proxy war. This war is threatening Yemen refugee's environment and Yemen is in humanitarian crisis with phenomenological changes.

Environmental Dimension

Many existing environmental problems potentially causes the conflict in Yemen. Global warming created shortage of water supply and intensified desertification, which contributed to water and food crisis.

Climate Change

Global climate change is caused by human inflicted emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas, increasing the average temperature of the planet. The average temperature on earth has already increased by 0.83°C in the last century, and since 1975, the temperature is increasing roughly 0.15-0.20°C per decade. Yemen is one of the many victims of global climate change. According to the IPCC, the increase in temperature due to global warming is likely to cause decreased precipitation in Yemen. The Yemeni land is already considered arid before climate change, and the decrease of precipitation will make land even dryer. The World Bank concluded that although the increase in global temperature might help slightly increase rainfall in Yemen in the short term future Yemen, the increasing heat wave and rising sea level will flood the low lying areas. In addition, the increasing salt water intrusion into ground level aquifers contaminate the soil and water supply. Climate change has a significant impact on resource availability especially on the water situation in Yemen.

Desertification

According to the data of the Yemen's Agriculture and Irrigation Ministry's Forestation and Desertification Control Department (FDCD), 97% of Yemeni lands suffer desertification and estimated at 3.83 million hectors. The natural causes of desertification include climate, geology, and topography. Since Yemen has acrid climate, erosion is higher in the places with less rainfall. Its soil in large proportion are from sedimentary rocks which is very vulnerable to erosion. The topography in Yemen consisted of plateau and plains, so the wind is able to move dunes into cultivated lands. Misuse of natural resources is the major human causes of desertification, including land use over the carrying capacity, over exploitation of forests, and over grazing on rangeland.

Soil Erosion

Soil Erosion and landscape destruction are resulted by the increasing population and the changing of precipitation pattern. The increasing population will put extra pressure on the landscape because more population means more wood land will be cleared for farming purposes. The more settlement and nucleation appear to result in increased soil erosion and vegetation loss. In addition, the intense farming due to the increased population density even exacerbated soil erosion. The decreasing rainfall makes as a result of global warming makes the land acrid and hard for any vegetation to survive. Some study showed that soil erosion might have some thing to do with the property of soil. The soil are sedimentary and contain charcoal , so it can be easily eroded when the soil lacks of moisture.

Water

Water availability in Yemen has decreased. Water scarcity with an intrinsic geographical formation in highlands and limited capital to build water infrastructures and provision service caused a catastrophic water shortage in Yemen. In a vicious circulation of dehydration between climate change, the water recharge into aquifers is decreasing and salt water intrusion is increasing. After the civil war began in 2015, the water buckets were destroyed significantly and price of water highly increased. Storing water has demolished by war and supply chains have been occupied by military personnel, which makes the delivery of water far more difficult. In 2015, over 15 million people need healthcare and over 20 million need clean water and sanitation—an increase of 52 percent since the intervention but, the government agencies can not afford to deliver clean water to displaced Yemeni citizens.

Agriculture

The Yemen civil war has resulted in a severe lack of food and vegetation. Agricultural production in the country has suffered substantially leaving Yemen to face the threat of Famine. Yemen is currently under blockade by land, sea and air which has disrupted the delivery of many of the countries resources. In country where 90% of the food requirements are met through imports this blockade has had serious consequences concerning the availability of food to its citizens. It is reported that out of the population of 24 million in Yemen, everyday 13 million are going hungry and 6 million are at risk of starvation. Contributing to this scarcity in food is the deliberate attack on the country’s agricultural resources. According to reports there is strong evidence suggesting that Yemen’s agricultural sector is being deliberately destroyed, exacerbating the food shortage and leaving the country dependent solely on imports to meet the food requirements of its citizens.

Social Dimension

Children/Women

Yemeni refugee female and children are extremely susceptible to smuggling and human trafficking. NGOs report that vulnerable populations in Yemen were at increased risk for human trafficking in 2015 because of ongoing armed conflict, civil unrest, and lawlessness. Migrant workers from the Somalia who remained in Yemen during this period suffered from increased violence, and women and children became most vulnerable to human trafficking. Prostitution on women and child sex workers is social issue in Yemen. Citizens of other gulf states are beginning to be drawn into the sex tourism industry. The poorest people in Yemen work locally and children are commonly sold as sex slaves abroad. While this issue is worsening, the plight of Somali's in Yemen has been ignored by the government. Children are recruited between the ages of 13 and 17, and as young as 10 years old into armed forces despite a law against it in 1991. The rate of militant recruitment in Yemen increases exponentially. According to an international organization, between March 26 and April 24, 2015, armed groups recruited at least 140 children.

Education

The civil war in Yemen severely impacted and degraded the country's education system. The number of children who are out of school increased to 1.8 million in 2015-2016 out of more than 5 million registered students according to the 2013 statistics released by the Ministry of Education. Moreover, 3600 schools are directly affected; 68 schools are occupied by armed groups, 248 schools have severe structural damage, and 270 are used to house refugees. The Yemen government has not been able to improve this situation due to limited authority and manpower. Some of the education system's problems include: not enough financial resources to operate schools and salaries of the teachers, not enough materials to reconstruct damaged schools, and lack of machinery to print textbooks and provide school supplies. These are caused by the unstable government that cannot offer enough financial support since many schools are either damaged or used for other purposes. Due to warfare and destruction of schools, the education ministry, fortunately, was able to send teams to oversee primary and secondary schools' final exam in order to give students 15-16 school year certificates. Education one of the basic human rights in United Nation. It is not fair the Yemen's children be deprived their opportunity of education due to civil war. Currently, the UNICEF is raising money to support students and fix schools damaged by armed conflicts.

Residential Condition

The Yemeni quality of life is affected by the civil war and have suffered enormous hardships. Although mines are banned by the government, the Houthi forces lie anti-personal mines in many parts of Yemen including Aden. Thousands of civilian are injured when they accidentally stepped on mines; many lose their legs and injure their eyes. In addition, the nine country coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched several airstrikes against the Houthi forces. However, strikes between 2015 and 2016 killed more than 1920 civilians and destroyed many civilian economics structures for good and food production, storage, and distribution. Factories ceased their production and thousands of people lost their job. Due to decreased production, food, medicines, and other consumer staples became scarce. The price of these goods went up and civilian can no longer afford them for sustenance.

Political Impacts

Refugee Migration

The wide-scale destruction caused by the Yemeni Civil war has left hundreds of thousands of people without homes, clean drinking water, food, and medical care. This has caused many to flee Yemen, and seek out refuge in neighboring countries. Yemen’s war has displaced around 2.4 million Yemenis according to UNHCR, most of whom are internally displaced. A further 170,000 people have fled the country, though most are foreigners. Instead of heading to Europe though, Yemenis are going to Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, and Ethiopia. Many have also fled to neighboring Oman and some even to Saudi Arabia, the country that is bombing them.

Al-Qaeda

In early 2016, the crumbling security and lack of infrastructure across Yemen allowed Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, considered the most brutal faction of Al-Qaeda, to invade Hadi controlled territory. In just a few short months, AQAP gained hundreds of thousands of square miles in controlled land, effectively splitting the country into a 3-way ring of rule. Similarly to Al-Qaeda, AQAP is opposed to the House of Saud, the large, royal family of Saudi Arabia. It was formed initially from the Al-Qaeda members in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Graph of average casualties in drone strikes ordered by the United States in Yemen, 2002-Present.

Drone Strikes

Since September 11, 2001, the United States began the use of drone warfare to target Islamist militant presence in Yemen. The United States targets jihadist militants and ideologues in Yemen, although the U.S. government generally does not confirm involvement in specific attacks conducted by unmanned aerial vehicles as a matter of policy. The Obama administration has made efforts to minimize civilian casualties in drone strikes. The drone efforts are seen primarily to counter terrorist cells and jihadists abroad.

U.S Involvement

On January 26, The United States Special Forces launched a raid on an ISIS terror cell in Yemen, leading to 8 US casualties and numerous cross-fire casualties of civilians. On January 29, Donald J. Trump signed an executive order banning nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries, including Yemen, from entry to the United States for 90 days. On March 6, President Trump signed a subsequent executive order banning travel from six Muslim-majority countries including Yemen, citing unresolved conflict and the closure of the US embassy:

"Yemen is the site of an ongoing conflict between the incumbent government and the Houthi-led opposition.  Both ISIS and a second group, al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), have exploited this conflict to expand their presence in Yemen and to carry out hundreds of attacks.  Weapons and other materials smuggled across Yemen's porous borders are used to finance AQAP and other terrorist activities.  In 2015, the United States Embassy in Yemen suspended its operations, and embassy staff were relocated out of the country.  Yemen has been supportive of, but has not been able to cooperate fully with, the United States in counterterrorism efforts."

The Trump administration is weighing whether or not to increase military aid to Saudi Arabia's efforts in Yemen. The Trump administration wants to curb Iran's involvement in the civil war and support the coalition forces. Secretary of Defense James Mattis highlights the importance of preventing destabilization in Yemen: "We will have to overcome Iran's efforts to destabilize yet another country and create another militia in their image of Lebanese Hezbollah, but the bottom line is we are on the right path for it,".

See Also

• Houthis
• Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
• Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi
• Yemeni Revolution