The south, meanwhile, has seen the growing power of the United Arab Emirates, which is part of a coalition meant to protect the internationally recognized government in the war with Shi'ite rebels while also fighting al-Qaida. But at the same time, the UAE has set up its own security forces, running virtually a state within a state and fueling the south's independence movement. An Associated Press investigation last week documented 18 secret prisons run by the UAE or its allies, where former prisoners said torture was widespread. The UAE denied the allegations and said all security forces were under the authority of President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi. The Emirati role reflects how the Yemen conflict has been regionalized from the start.
Members of the Higher Council for Civilian Community Organization inspect a destroyed funeral hall as they protest against a deadly Saudi-led airstrike six days earlier in Sanaa, Yemen
With U.S. backing, Saudi Arabia launched its coalition, contending that Iran was behind the rebels, known as Houthis, who overran the north and the capital, Sanaa. The coalition's air bombardment averted the complete fall of the Hadi government and prevented the Houthis from taking over the south. But now both sides are locked in. The north remains in the hands of the Houthis, backed by army units loyal to Hadi's predecessor, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was removed by a 2011 uprising. The south is ostensibly under the authority of Hadi, but he spends most of his time in exile in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Here is a look at the multiple levels on which the war has devastated the country of 26 million, which even before the conflict was the Arab world's poorest nation.
Humanitarian disaster
In May, a senior U.N. humanitarian official declared that Yemen was site of "the world's largest food security crisis." More than 17 million desperately needed food, and nearly 7 million of those were "one step away from famine." Last week came the newest horrible superlative. The World Health Organization said Yemen faced "the worst cholera outbreak in the world." More than 1,400 people, a quarter of them children, have died of cholera the past two months. Those nightmares come on top of other intertwined effects of the war. More than 3 million people have been driven from their homes. More than 10,000 people have been killed. There are major fuel shortages caused by a coalition blockade. Health services have collapsed. One million civil servants have not been paid for months, including 30,000 health workers. The cholera outbreak spread with startling speed after two months of heavy rains in the north, exacerbated by the pileup of garbage in streets — trash collectors are among those who have gone unpaid — and the lack of access to clean water for millions of people.
Yemeni loyalist forces and onlookers gather at the scene of a suicide attack targeting the police chief in the base of the Saudi-backed government in Aden, Yemen
Around 5,000 new cholera cases are reported daily. Aid officials fear it could pass a quarter-million people by September. The U.N. is sending 1 million doses of vaccines, the largest since Haiti's outbreak in 2010. Dealing with cholera is pulling away resources and food meant to go to battling famine, warned the U.N. humanitarian chief in Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick. Yemen long struggled with malnutrition. But the coalition embargo and the fighting have wrecked distribution systems and tipped the country into near famine. A child under the age of 5 dies every 10 minutes of preventable causes, and 2.2 million babies are acutely malnourished, with almost half a million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, a 63 percent increase since late 2015, according to Stephen O'Brien of the Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance.
Devastated north
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Originally Posted by Ethereal
