Center for South Asian & Middle Eastern Studies

“If you survived the mines, you’d get killed by a sniper,” said Khaled Ahyaf, a Doctor at a child malnutrition clinic in Eastern Yemen, barely a mile from an active frontline, explaining why he can’t get desperately needed supplies. “We’re living on the last 5%,” said Nabat Sulaiman, a nurse, “we only do the limited work we can do. We beg them, try to make peace.” They were surrounded by tiny, emaciated and wailing babies, just some of the 20 million people now facing famine due to the war in Yemen. A coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been fighting for four years in an attempt to defeat the Houthi rebels, who they see as Iranian proxies. But there is no victory in sight, various efforts at a peace deal have failed and the war, being waged with US supplied weapons and equipment, grinds on. Air-strikes, landmines, rag-tag militias who use child soldiers and widespread blockades of food and aid have made this the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. VICE News travelled to Yemen in October 2018 to report on the civilians who are being hit the hardest, the brave volunteers risking their lives to save them and the motley crew of U.S.-backed fighters , who want a fight to the finish, regardless of the costs. Subscribe to VICE News here: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE-News Check out VICE News for more: http://vicenews.com Follow VICE News here: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicenews Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicenews Tumblr: http://vicenews.tumblr.com/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/vicenews More videos from the VICE network: https://www.fb.com/vicevideo #VICEonHBO

“People are not seeing what’s going on. We’re talking thousands of civilian dead.” [Subscribe on YouTube: http://bit.ly/1BycsJW] In May, FRONTLINE filmmaker Martin Smith and his team were the only foreign journalists given permission to enter Yemen, the country that’s home to what the United Nations recently called the “largest humanitarian crisis” in the world. What they saw unfolds in “Inside Yemen.” From children describing the sounds bombs make as they fall, to doctors and nurses caring for cholera patients and malnourished infants for months without pay, this short documentary is a rare, up-close look at the consequences of two-plus years of airstrikes on the country by a Saudi-Arabia led coalition that has received weapons and tactical assistance from the United States. Smith’s trip to Yemen was part of his reporting for an upcoming FRONTLINE special on the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Airing in 2018, the documentary will trace the roots of the Sunni-Shia divide, and explore how a proxy war between the two countries is devastating the Middle East. Twitter: https://twitter.com/frontlinepbs Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frontline Google+: https://plus.google.com/+frontline/posts FRONTLINE is streaming more than 200 documentaries online, for free, here: http://to.pbs.org/hxRvQP FRONTLINE is made possible by PBS and CPB. Major support is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional support is provided by Ford Foundation, the Park Foundation, the John and Helen Glessner Family Trust, the Wyncote Foundation and Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation. Additional funding for this reporting is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.

The current crisis in Yemen, a country crippled by war, took a dramatic turn on December 4 with the assassination of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh by Houthi rebels. But the political and sectarian divisions that dominate Yemen today - and which ultimately led to Saleh's death - go back hundreds of years. When Islam came to Yemen, the Zaidis, a Shia Islamic sect, became dominant in the north, and its imams were in full control there by the 9th century. The Shia presence would remain in the north for the next thousand years. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the northern kingdom of Yemen was ruled by a Shia imam while the south of Yemen remained divided, run by different local sultanates - until the British eventually established their own southern state, the Federation of South Arabia. North Yemen became a republic in 1962 but it was not until 1967 that the British colonial rule ended in the south and The People's Republic of South Yemen was formed, with Qahtan al-Shaabi as its president. Independence did not stop the southern infighting. The National Liberation Front took power in 1969 and formed a Marxist republic, leaning heavily on support from the Soviet Union. The push-pull between north and south also continued. Some analysts now see this as tension part of the slow process towards the eventual unification of the two halves of Yemen. "The conflict between the north and south has always been about Yemen's unity, the 1972 and 1979 wars," explains journalist and historian Abd al-Bari Taher. "Those two wars between the north and south were all about achieving Yemeni unity." More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - http://aje.io/aljazeeraworldYT Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AlJazeeraWorld Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - http://www.aljazeera.com/aljazeeraworld Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - http://aje.io/YTsubscribe #AlJazeeraEnglish #YemenDivide #AlJazeeraWorld

Weapons manufactured in the West and exported to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have ended up in the hands of Yemeni militia. This is directly in contravention of international law and arms trade treaties. A documentary by the independent journalist network Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) reveals the shocking details. Egyptian journalist Mohamed Aboelgheit spent a year tracing and documenting the origin of weapons that have ended up in the hands of armed groups fighting in Yemen’s civil war. The countries of origin include Germany, the US, the UK, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Serbia, Bulgaria and others. Yet according to international treaties, these arms should never have reached Yemeni militia groups. Aboelgheit created social media accounts using false Yemeni names to get access to the informal trading networks and groups. In some cases the sellers were at pains to emphasize that the weapons were brand new and had never been fired. The documentary airs weighty evidence to show that Gulf states have been passing arms sold to their military on to other parties in Yemen - for political reasons. This is clearly in breach of "end user” certification laws intended to ensure that exported arms are not passed on to third parties. _______ DW Documentary gives you knowledge beyond the headlines. Watch high-class documentaries from German broadcasters and international production companies. Meet intriguing people, travel to distant lands, get a look behind the complexities of daily life and build a deeper understanding of current affairs and global events. Subscribe and explore the world around you with DW Documentary. Subscribe to DW Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW39zufHfsuGgpLviKh297Q?sub_confirmation=1# For more documentaries visit: http://www.dw.com/en/tv/docfilm/s-3610 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/dwdocumentary/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dw.stories DW netiquette policy: http://www.dw.com/en/dws-netiquette-policy/a-5300954

The Houthis have been ramping up attacks on the Saudi-led coalition while the UAE is gradually pulling out of Yemen and reaching out to Iran It's been more than four years since a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched a ferocious air campaign to remove Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen. The effect, as we know, has been devastating: tens of thousands of civilians killed, and as many as 85-thousand children who may have starved to death. But there are two things going on right now which, maybe, have the potential to change that war. One is the increased ability of the Houthis to hit back. On Thursday, they claimed two major attacks against Saudi-Emirati backed forces. But perhaps more significantly in the long term, is the UAE drawing down its military presence in Yemen. That started a few weeks ago and, for the first time in six years, Emirati officials met an Iranian delegation in Tehran. They signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation on maritime border security. But the fact they met in the first place, is a significant step. So, what now for the coalition? And is there any room for diplomacy? Presenter: Kamahl Santamaria Guests Simon Mabon, senior lecturer in international relations at Lancaster University. Hussain al Bukhaiti, a pro-Houthi journalist and Yemen affairs specialist. Rami Khouri, senior public policy fellow at the American University of Beirut. - Subscribe to our channel http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/ #AlJazeeraEnglish #YemenWar #InsideStory