Yemen's rivals are not only clashing on the ground but battling economically for revenue from ports
A U.N. envoy says sporadic armed clashes between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and government forces are straining peace efforts, and the rivals are now also battling over revenue from ports, trade, banking and natural resources
UNITED NATIONS — Sporadic armed clashes between Yemen's Houthi rebels and government forces are straining peace efforts, and the rivals are now also battling over revenue from ports, trade, banking and natural resources, the country’s U.N. envoy said Monday.
Special Representative Hans Grundberg told the U.N. Security Council that the fight over economic wealth “has become inseparable from the political and military conflict.”
While fighting has decreased markedly in Yemen since a truce in April 2022, he said, “continued sparks of violence alongside public threats to return to large-scale fighting increase fear and tensions.”
Grundberg said Yemenis have enjoyed the longest period of relative calm since the civil war erupted in 2014, but “the situation on the ground remains fragile and challenging." He pointed to clashes in five frontline areas, including Hodeida where Yemen’s main port is and the oil-rich eastern province of Marib which Iran-backed Houthi rebels attempted to seize in 2021.
Yemen’s conflict began when the Houthis swept down from their northern stronghold and chased the internationally recognized government from the capital of Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following year on behalf of the government and in time the conflict turned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The war has devastated Yemen, already the Arab region's poorest country, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. More than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, have
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