Yemen Civil War: Frontlines, Humanitarian Crisis, and Fragile Peace Efforts

Yemen's civil war traces its origins to 2014, when Houthi insurgents — Shiite rebels with links to Iran and a history of opposition to the Sunni government — seized Sanaa, the country's capital and largest city, demanding reduced fuel prices and a new government. After negotiations collapsed, the rebels took over the presidential palace in January 2015, prompting President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to resign. Starting in March 2015, a Gulf coalition led by Saudi Arabia responded with economic isolation and air strikes against the Houthis, backed by U.S. logistical and intelligence support.

Yemen's civil war, now in its second decade, continues to pit Houthi rebels against internationally recognized government forces and a Saudi-led coalition, leaving the country gripped by one of the world's gravest humanitarian emergencies.

Hadi rescinded his resignation in February 2015 after escaping from Sanaa, complicating a UN-supported transitional council based in the southern port city of Aden. A subsequent Houthi advance forced him to flee Aden into exile in Saudi Arabia. Though he later attempted to return to Aden, he ultimately governed as president in exile.

Regional Proxy Struggle and Blockade

The involvement of Iran and the Gulf states drew Yemen into a broader Sunni-Shia proxy conflict. In June 2015, Saudi Arabia established a naval blockade to cut off Iranian arms supplies to the Houthis; Iran responded by dispatching a naval convoy, raising the risk of direct military confrontation. The U.S. Navy also became involved, continuing to intercept Yemen-bound Iranian weapons shipments. The blockade has remained central to Yemen's humanitarian crisis throughout the war. The Saudi-UAE-led air campaign has carried out more than twenty-five thousand strikes, causing over nineteen thousand civilian casualties. Between 2021 and 2022, the Houthis retaliated with waves of drone attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

On the ground, the Houthis initially advanced rapidly — moving east toward Marib and south to Aden in early 2015 — before Saudi intervention pushed them back north and west, where front lines eventually stabilized. UN-brokered peace talks stalled in the summer of 2016. In the south and east, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) grew as a threat to government control, though its influence has since diminished.

In July 2016, the Houthis and forces loyal to former President Saleh — who had been removed from power in 2011 after nearly thirty years — announced a joint political council to govern Sanaa and much of northern Yemen. In December 2017, however, Saleh broke with the Houthis and called on his followers to fight them. He was killed, and his forces were defeated within two days. Separately, the internationally recognized government faced a challenge from the Southern Transitional Council (STC), established in 2017 from a pre-existing southern separatist movement, which controls areas in the southwest including Aden. A 2019 Saudi-brokered arrangement brought the STC into the recognized government framework, though the faction has continued to pose difficulties.

Hodeidah, Taiz, and the UAE Withdrawal

In 2018, coalition forces pushed northward along the coast toward Hodeidah, northern Yemen's main seaport. The fighting gave way to a ceasefire and commitments to pull troops from the city; the ceasefire largely held, though fighting persisted elsewhere. Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, remained contested, having been under Houthi blockade since 2015. In 2020, the UAE formally withdrew from Yemen, though it retains substantial influence in the country.

In February 2021, Houthi rebels launched an offensive to capture Marib, the last major stronghold of Yemen's internationally recognized government. The following month, they conducted missile strikes into Saudi Arabia, targeting oil infrastructure and international airports. The Saudi-led coalition responded with air strikes on Sanaa. The Marib offensive marked the deadliest period of fighting since 2018, killing hundreds of combatants and disrupting peace efforts.

Humanitarian Crisis and Economic Collapse

The conflict has inflicted devastating harm on Yemen's civilian population, making it the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The UN estimates that 60 percent of the roughly 377,000 deaths recorded between 2015 and early 2022 resulted from indirect causes such as food insecurity and inadequate healthcare. Some 21.6 million people — two-thirds of the population — remain in urgent need of humanitarian assistance; five million face famine risk; and a cholera outbreak has affected more than one million people. All parties to the conflict have been reported to have violated human rights and international humanitarian law.

An ongoing economic crisis has worsened the humanitarian situation. By late 2019, the economy had split into two broad zones aligned with Houthi and Saudi-backed government territories. In the autumn of 2021, a sharp drop in the value of Yemen's currency — particularly in government-held areas — severely eroded purchasing power and made basic goods increasingly unaffordable, triggering widespread protests in southern cities that security forces suppressed by force.

Separately from the civil war, the United States has conducted counterterrorism operations in Yemen, primarily through air strikes targeting AQAP and Islamic State-affiliated militants. U.S. cooperation with Yemeni authorities on counterterrorism dates to the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. Since 2002, the United States has carried out nearly four hundred strikes in Yemen. In April 2016, a small U.S. advisory team was deployed to support Saudi-led forces retaking AQAP-held territory. A January 2017 U.S. Special Operations raid in central Yemen killed one American service member, several suspected AQAP fighters, and an undetermined number of Yemeni civilians. President Joe Biden announced the end of U.S. support for Saudi-led offensive operations in February 2021 and removed the Houthis' terrorist designation; they were redesignated a terrorist organization in January 2024 following their attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

In April 2022, President Hadi — described as internationally recognized but unpopular — stepped down after ten years in office, clearing the way for a new seven-member presidential council intended to better represent Yemen's political factions. The council is chaired by Rashad al-Alimi, a former Hadi advisor with close ties to Saudi Arabia and prominent Yemeni political figures.

Ceasefire Lapse and Ongoing Negotiations

Although a UN-brokered six-month ceasefire formally expired in October 2022, both sides have largely avoided major escalation, keeping hostility levels relatively low. Peace talks between Saudi and Houthi officials, mediated by Oman and running alongside UN efforts, resumed in April 2023. Concrete progress has remained elusive; the first official Houthi delegation to visit Riyadh since the war began — on September 14 — produced no tangible results beyond optimistic statements. Reported discussion topics included a full reopening of Houthi-controlled ports and Sanaa airport, reconstruction, and a timeline for foreign troop withdrawal. Negotiations have been complicated by the suspension of Sanaa's only commercial air route and a late-September Houthi drone strike that killed four Bahraini members of the Saudi-led coalition.

Separate Iran-Saudi talks held in April 2023, mediated by China, have generated cautious optimism. Those discussions produced an agreement to restore diplomatic ties and reopen both countries' embassies after years of hostility. Iran's UN mission indicated that the agreement could help revive the lapsed ceasefire in Yemen.