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#YemenCantWait: calls for peace as Yemen enters fourth year of war
#YemenCantWait: calls for peace as Yemen enters fourth year of war
The deadly Yemen conflict has officially entered its fourth year, to the dismay of Yemenis and peace activists across the world.
2 min read
Yemen has entered its fourth year of war [Getty]
Exactly this time four years ago, Saudi Arabia shocked the world when it built a coalition and decided to fire airstrikes into Yemen to defeat the Houthi rebels and reinstate the internationally-recognised government.
Without issuing any prior warning, the coalition declared what was perceived as a sudden war, with hopes that it would last no longer than a few weeks. The coalition at the time predicted a swift Houthi withdrawal and a smooth transition of control from the rebels to Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi - Yemen's current exiled president who has remained in Riyadh since 2015..
Without issuing any prior warning, the coalition declared what was perceived as a sudden war, with hopes that it would last no longer than a few weeks. The coalition at the time predicted a swift Houthi withdrawal and a smooth transition of control from the rebels to Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi - Yemen's current exiled president who has remained in Riyadh since 2015..
Four years on, the war has left more than 10,000 dead, mainly civilians, according to the World Health Organisation, although rights groups fear the real figure to be five times higher.
The United Nations has also called the Yemen war the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
With millions across the world campaigning to end the war from the very beginning, many have expressed their dismay that the war has now entered its fourth year without much progress on the ground.
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A hashtag #4YearsOfWarOnYemen was created to share with harrowing figures and statistics attributed to the war:
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Depite feelings of hopelessness, people continued campaigning outside of the webosphere and staged protests across the world:
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Even before the war, Yemen was already the poorest country in the Arab world. Bombing ports, closing maritme borders and destroying internal infrastructure has hindered the delivery of food to civilians - causing a famine in the war-torn country:
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Children have become orphaned and families have been torn apart:
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And of course, even after being key to causing a humanitarian crisis, Saudi officials continue to insist that their war is helping the Yemeni people:
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