Yemen
Expected Council Action
In August, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen, is expected to brief Council members. As has been recent practice during Yemen meetings, a representative of OCHA may also brief. No outcome is currently planned.
Key Recent Developments
Yemen has remained engulfed in full-scale war four months after a Saudi Arabia-led coalition began airstrikes against the Houthis (a Zaydi Shiite rebel group) in an effort to restore transition President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power. The conflict continues to pit the Houthis and military units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against forces supporting Hadi, southern separatists, Sunni tribes, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Saudi-led coalition. A five-day humanitarian pause from 12 to 17 May led to a brief reduction in the fighting.
After several delays, UN-brokered consultations in Geneva between the Yemeni parties began on 15 June. The meeting opened, however, without the Houthis, who did not arrive in Geneva until the following day after what the UN characterised as logistical problems with their flight. The consultations concluded on 19 June without any new agreements. In the lead-up to the meeting, Yemeni government officials said that they were not going to Geneva to negotiate but to implement resolution 2216 and its requirement that the Houthis withdraw from the territory they had seized. Still, the consultations represented the first time that the sides held talks since March, which Ould Cheikh Ahmed stressed was a significant achievement.
Following the consultations, the UN continued to pursue a new humanitarian pause. Hadi sent a letter to the Secretary-General on 8 July outlining a list of requirements for announcing a pause, including that the Houthis first withdraw from the governorates of Aden, Taiz, Marib and Shabwa. On 9 July, the UN announced it had received Houthi assurances to respect a pause, noted Hadi’s recent letter and said that it was looking forward to an “unconditional humanitarian pause” to start on 10 July at 23:59 (GMT+3) until the end of Ramadan on 17 July. The pause never materialised as Saudi Arabia said that the coalition did not receive instructions from Hadi to implement it.
Shortly after, southern resistance fighters trained abroad with military advisers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates joined in an offensive against the Houthis in Aden. On 14 July, they captured the airport, and over the next few days the Houthis were driven from the city. Members of the Yemen government reportedly returned to Aden. Following the victory, Saudi Arabia unilaterally announced a five-day humanitarian pause to start on 26 July at 23:59 (GMT+3). Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the Houthi-declared acting president, said that the Houthis had not been informed about the pause by the UN and would not take a positive or negative position on it until then. Shortly after its start, both sides had failed to respect the pause.
As fighting has raged, Yemen’s humanitarian crisis deepened. On 1 July, OCHA and UN agencies declared the situation a “Level 3” emergency, the UN’s most severe ranking of a humanitarian crisis. According to OCHA, 21.1 million people were in need of assistance and nearly 1.3 million people had been displaced. As of 24 July, more than 4,000 deaths had been recorded by medical facilities since fighting escalated in late March, and over 19,800 injured. Actual figures are believed to be much higher. On 24 July, the day before Saudi Arabia announced the latest humanitarian pause, coalition airstrikes struck residential compounds for workers at an electricity plant in the coastal city of Mokha, reportedly killing at least 100 civilians. Furthermore, the World Health Organisation has confirmed outbreaks of dengue fever and malaria, due to a collapse in water and sanitation systems.
OCHA’s humanitarian response plan, requiring $1.6 billion, was only 15 percent funded as of 18 July. Saudi Arabia’s pledge that it made in April to provide in full OCHA’s emergency appeal issued for $274 million has yet to materialise. To distribute the money, Saudi Arabia created the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Works with which UN agencies are currently in negotiations on memoranda of understanding for using this money.
The UN has been negotiating with the coalition the creation of a verification and inspection mechanism to facilitate the increased delivery to Yemen of commercial good imports such as food and fuel, which have declined to a fraction of pre-crisis levels. The Yemen government sent a letter to the Secretary-General on 14 July stating that the coalition should continue to monitor and inspect all ships, claiming this authority was given to it in resolution 2216.
Council members were briefed in consultations on 24 June by Ould Cheikh Ahmed on the Geneva talks, while OCHA’s Operations Director, John Ging, updated members on the humanitarian situation. The next day, Council members issued a press statement welcoming the Geneva talks and “positively took note” of his briefing on a set of negotiating “principles” to which Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he was seeking the agreement of both sides. While speaking to reporters after the meeting, Ould Cheikh Ahmed said that a ceasefire agreement should involve international monitors to observe the parties’ adherence to a ceasefire. On 10 July, Council members issued a press statement supporting the implementation of an unconditional humanitarian pause by all parties, announced by the Secretary-General but which never materialised.
The Council last met on Yemen on 28 July, when OCHA chief Stephen O’Brien briefed on the humanitarian situation, followed by consultations. O’Brien updated members on efforts to alleviate the conflict’s toll on civilians, which he described as catastrophic, while highlighting that parties to the conflict were failing to meet their responsibilities under international humanitarian and human rights law.
Human Rights-Related Developments
On 14 July, the spokesperson for High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Al Hussein noted that between 3 and 13 July at least 142 civilians, including 36 children and 27 women, were killed and 224 others injured. On one particularly deadly day, 6 July, two markets in different provinces were hit by airstrikes, killing 76 civilians, including 21 children and 15 women, and injuring 38 others, including five children.
Key Issues
A key issue will be how the Council can support brokering a ceasefire and more comprehensive peace negotiations.
An immediate issue is finding means to obtain pauses in the fighting to address the catastrophic humanitarian situation.
Other issues include the growing risk of the country’s partition, with the prospect for southern independence, competing governing authorities and AQAP’s expansion, in addition to the emerging presence of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.
Options
The Council could decide to become more directly engaged. As a first step, it could adopt a resolution:
- calling on all sides to engage in UN-brokered negotiations in good faith and without preconditions;
- requesting an immediate cessation of hostilities;
- expressing grave concern over the humanitarian situation and the need for all sides to enable humanitarian access and commercial goods deliveries, including food and fuel;
- reaffirming that states must report to the 2140 Yemen Sanctions Committee inspections of cargo to Yemen and that inspections should be conducted only when there is information providing reasonable grounds a cargo contains prohibited items; and
- re-stating its resolve to impose sanctions on those who impede humanitarian access.
Another option is to hold an Arria-formula meeting on civilian casualties and the humanitarian situation in the context of states’ responsibility to protect, examining the causes of and proposals for addressing the war’s toll on civilians.
Council and Wider Dynamics
Not long ago, Yemen was viewed by the Council as a success story and promising example of its cooperating with a regional organisation—the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—in conflict prevention. As the situation worsened during the second half of 2014 and early 2015, the Council relied on the mediation efforts of the then-UN Special Adviser on Yemen, Jamal Benomar. Additionally, the 2140 Sanctions Committee imposed targeted sanctions on Saleh and two Houthi military leaders in November. By February and March, perhaps frustrated by the failure to impact the parties’ calculations, most members seemed to defer to the preferences of Saudi Arabia for addressing the problems of its neighbour. The UK, the penholder on Yemen, essentially ceded the role to Jordan and the GCC, which drafted the initial texts of resolution 2201 adopted in February, a 22 March presidential statement and the 14 April resolution 2216.
Council dynamics have since evolved. With resolution 2216, Russia had been the main dissenting voice. By May other members’ support of Jordan and of GCC states’ positions had dissipated, apparently because of concerns over the conflict’s humanitarian impact and open-endedness of the Saudi-led military intervention. In hindsight, some members felt that the Council had adopted a resolution that had been largely drafted by a party to the conflict and some have privately expressed regret over its adoption.
The Saudi-led coalition has referred to resolution 2216 as a justification for its military intervention. While the resolution explicitly reaffirmed Hadi’s legitimacy as Yemen’s president, which has implications for his decisions on humanitarian access or the embargo, the resolution did not authorise any specific enforcement measures, other than member states’ obligations vis-à-vis the sanctions regime.
As of May, the UK, reasserted itself as penholder. The Council’s more recent press statements and “press elements” did not take on various proposals made by Jordan and GCC members, such as emphasising that the Houthis must implement resolution 2216. The Council in its statements has repeatedly urged the parties to negotiate without preconditions and has endorsed the Secretary-General’s calls for unconditional humanitarian pauses.
However, there does not appear to be much appetite among members for a new resolution. The Council’s current approach seems to be issuing statements in support of the UN’s good offices role. Notably, the Council has yet to request a ceasefire, in part because the sides have had such difficulty agreeing to short-term humanitarian pauses, considered a first step for a broader cessation of hostilities. Additionally for members close to Saudi Arabia, there may be a reluctance to call for a ceasefire, which Saudi Arabia opposed when Russia first proposed it. Following the UN’s unsuccessful attempt to get a humanitarian pause during Ramadan, the P5 told GCC members and Jordan that they needed to implement a humanitarian pause.
Some Council members have also engaged in bi-lateral pressure rather than resorting to the Council to gain parties’ cooperation. However, the recent nuclear negotiations with Iran, culminating in an agreement which has worried Saudi Arabia, may have affected the US and UK’s ability to pressure too strongly their long-time ally. Russia and Iran are the only two states whose embassies remain open in Sana’a.
| Security Council Resolution | |
| 14 April 2015 S/RES/2216 | This resolution established an arms embargo on the Houthis and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. |
| Security Council Press Statements | |
| 10 July 2015 SC/11966 | This press statement supported the implementation of an unconditional humanitarian pause by all parties to start at 11:59 pm on 10 July until the end of Ramadan. |
| 25 June 2015 SC/11944 | This press statement positively took note of the Special Envoy’s “principles” for advancing UN-brokered consultations, and reaffirmed the Council’s call on Yemeni parties to engage in talks without preconditions. |
| 18 June 2015 SC/11935 | This was a press statement condemning the 17 June 2015 terrorist attacks in Sana’a. |
| 2 June 2015 SC/11915 | This was a press statement expressing deep disappointment that consultations in Geneva, scheduled for 28 May, did not take place and urged Yemeni stakeholders to participate in inclusive negotiations as soon as possible in good faith and without preconditions. |
| 12 May 2015 SC/11888 | This press statement expressed grave concern about the humanitarian situation in Yemen, and welcomed the five-day humanitarian pause from 12 to 17 May. |
| Security Council Meeting Record | |
| 28 July 2015 S/PV.7494 | This was a briefing by OCHA head Stephen O’Brien on the humanitarian situation in Yemen. |
