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Yemen Civil War - 2022

Despite the worsening humanitarian situation and all the efforts for peace, the hostilities in Yemen continue and are causing more and more civilian casualties. While the threat of famine loomed in Yemen, many people already live in famine-like conditions. Pockets of famine-like conditions have returned to Yemen for the first time in two years.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis launched dozens of cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia throughout 2021. In September 2021, the Houthis intensified their efforts to take Marib, a provincial capital which is the government’s last northern stronghold. As hostilities escalated, the Houthis on January 3 seized a United Arab Emirates-flagged ship that the coalition said was carrying medical supplies. On January 15, an Iran-backed Houthi spokesperson rejected the UN request to release the vessel. The Iran-backed militia frequently target civilian areas and energy facilities in the Kingdom with explosive-laden drones and ballistic missiles.

Fighting intensified since the start of 2022 where Houthi inroads in September 2021 had cut off access to the Saudi-backed government's last northern stronghold in Marib. Marib, in central Yemen, had been the focus of the war for over a year, with the battle for control stymieing United Nations-led peace efforts. The government held the province's main city and nearby oil and gas infrastructure. Marib city is home to 3 million people, including nearly 1 million who fled other parts of Yemen after the Houthis ousted the government from the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014, prompting the coalition to intervene months later.

Fighting intensified since the start of the year, after the coalition sent reinforcements to Shabwa, where Houthi inroads in September had cut off access to the Saudi-backed government's last northern stronghold in Marib. The push for energy-rich Shabwa came amid heavy air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthi rebels elsewhere in Yemen, including the capital Sanaa. Yemeni forces said they were in full control of energy-rich Shabwa province after 10 days of fighting with Houthi rebels. Yemen's Giants Brigade, a group backed by the United Arab Emirates and also part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthis.

The Arab Coalition conducted 33 military operations in 24 hours targeting Iran-backed Houthi’s in the Yemeni province of Marib, killing more than 190 militia members and 21 military vehicles, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) 15 January 2022. The Coalition also conducted 27 targeted operations in Yemen’s al-Bayda, eliminating 150 Iran-backed Houthi members and 16 military vehicles, according to the same SPA report. Following the announcement, an official statement warned against the Iran-backed Houthi’s continued attempts to attack civilian objects. They also added that these strikes “thwarted the systemic attempts to target civilians.”

The targeted strike came a little more than an hour after the Arab Coalition released a statement requesting travelers not to use the roads coming from Marib and al-Bayda towards the governorates of Harib, Ain, Bayhan, and Usaylan until further notice. All “movements on these roads will be targeted,” said the original statement.

The Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia announced that it started bombing the Yemeni capital Sanaa in response to the strikes, carried out by the Houthi military opposition on the territory of the UAE, Sky News Arabia reported 18 January 2022. According to a statement from the coalition, air strikes have begun "in response to threat and military necessity." The attack, according to the coalition, target "terrorist leaders."

UAE-backed forces largely avoided engaging the Houthis in battle since 2018. But in late January 2022, Emirati-backed groups have pushed into Houthi territory, causing the group to launch attacks against the UAE. On 17 January 2022 a drone attack claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels triggered a fuel tank blast at a storage facility in Abu Dhabi that killed two Indians and a Pakistani working for oil giant ADNOC. Yahya Saree, the military spokesman of the Houthis, said the group had “carried out … a successful military operation” against “important and sensitive Emirati sites and installations” using ballistic missiles and drones.

On 24 January 2022 the UAE said it had intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles fired at Abu Dhabi by the Houthis. The United States’ Central Command (CENTCOM) said the US military successfully “engaged” two missiles aimed at Abu Dhabi’s al-Dhafra airbase, which hosts about 2,000 American service members, “with multiple Patriot interceptors”.

The Giants Brigades forces said 29 January 2022 some of its fighters remained on the front lines in key Yemeni conflict zones as part of defensive measures after driving out the Iran-backed Houthi militia. The Giants Brigades, which are supported by the UAE, said it had begun repositioning its forces after pushing the Houthis back from oil-rich Shabwa province and stopping short of launching a northward offensive towards the strategically vital city of Marib. The surprise announcement followed two drone and missile attacks by the Iran-backed militia on the UAE, the first of which killed three residents of the Emirates. Having lost ground to the Arab Coalition, the Houthis warned of further attacks on the UAE unless such operations are halted.

On January 31 the UAE said it intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired from Yemen as the Gulf state hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog on the first-ever visit to the country by an Israeli head of state. On 02 February 2022 the UAE said it intercepted three drones that entered its airspace over unpopulated areas early in the morning. The attack was claimed by a little-known Iraqi group calling itself the True Promise Brigades, according to the US-based SITE Intelligence Group. The group said it launched “four drones targeting vital facilities in Abu Dhabi” in retaliation for the Emirates’ policies in Iraq and Yemen.

On 25 March 2022 Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked an oil depot in the Saudi city of Jeddah ahead of a Formula One race in the kingdom — their highest-profile assault yet that threatened to disrupt the upcoming grand prix. Friday's attack targeted the same fuel depot that the Houthis had attacked in recent days, the North Jeddah Bulk Plant that sits just southeast of the city’s international airport and is a crucial hub for Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca. The Saudi-led coalition then unleashed a barrage of air strikes on the capital Sanaa and Hodeida, a strategic Red Sea city, — both held by the Houthis.

Yemen's Houthis said 26 March 2022 they are suspending missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia for three days. The peace initiative, the Iran-backed group suggested, could be a lasting commitment if the Saudi-led coalition fighting it stopped air strikes and lifted port restrictions. Mahdi al Mashat, the head of the Houthis' political office, also announced a three-day suspension of ground offensive operations in Yemen, including in the gas producing region of Marib. In a speech broadcast on television, Mashat added that the group was ready to release all prisoners, including the brother of Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The Arab Coalition on 29 March 2022 announced that it would cease all military operations in Yemen during the month of Ramadan to help create “propitious conditions” for peace talks to end the years-long war in the country. The Coalition’s statement came hours after GCC Secretary-General Dr. Nayef Al-Hajraf called for a cessation of military operations coinciding with the Yemeni-Yemeni peace talks being held in Saudi Arabia.

“With the view of creating propitious conditions needed for successful consultations and a favorable environment for the Holy Month of Ramadan to make peace, and achieve security and stability in Yemen, the Joint Forces Command of the Coalition hereby announces cessation of military operations in Yemen beginning at (0600) Wednesday, March 30, 2022, in response to His Excellency’s request,” Coalition Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Turki Al-Malki said in a statement.

Yemen's warring parties laid down their weapons on 02 april 2022 for the first nationwide truce since 2016, with all eyes on whether the UN-brokered ceasefire will hold. The Iran-backed Huthi rebels and Saudi-led coalition both agreed to observe the two-month truce, which took effect at 1600 GMT on the first day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. "The two-month truce started at 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) tonight. As of tonight, all offensive ground, aerial and naval military operations should cease," UN special envoy Hans Grundberg said in a statement.

Yemen’s exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi transferred his powers to a new presidential council, in a major political shake-up that took place as efforts to end the country’s years-long war gained traction with a fragile two-month truce. “I irreversibly delegate to this presidential leadership council my full powers,” Hadi said in a televised statement on the final day of peace talks held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, which had been leading a military coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised government against the Houthi rebels. He added that the council would be tasked with negotiating with the Houthi rebels “for a permanent ceasefire”.

Hadi also sacked Vice President Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a powerful military figure, and delegated al-Ahmar’s powers to the presidential council. Al-Ahmar is resented by the Houthis for past military campaigns in their northern stronghold and by southerners for his leading role in the country’s 1994 north-south civil war.