Publications

Analysis October 31, 2017 13:23 MIN Renewed rapid currency depreciation and diverging monetary policy between Sana’a and Aden Summary: Through October Yemen’s domestic currency, the rial (YR), lost almost 10 percent of its value relative to the United States dollar (USD) in market trading, dropping from YR 375 to the USD to YR 412. This drop was roughly equivalent to the loss in value over the previous six months and the second time in 2017 that the rial has experienced rapid devaluation. As the Sana’a Center has previously documented, in the first half of February Yemen’s domestic currency lost some 20 percent of its market value. In both these instances, the authorities in Sana’a, (where the Houthi movement and the allied forces of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh hold sway,) and those in the southern city of Aden,… Continue reading News October 26, 2017 01:50 MIN The Yemen Exchange – October 11-15, 2017 The second Yemen Exchange conference, co-hosted by the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies and the Mideast Wire, took place October 11 - 15 in Beirut, Lebanon. Presenters at The Exchange covered a wide spectrum of Yemeni experts, actors and thought leaders – including a former president, current and former ministers, governors, general secretaries of political parties, diplomats, bureaucrats, economists, historians, archeologists, human rights defenders, and tribal leaders – as well as diverse array of local power brokers from across the country representing various parties to the ongoing armed conflict. These speakers were brought together with Exchange participants, who included diplomats, security experts, scholars and journalists from around Europe, North America, the Middle East, the United Kingdom and the United States.… Continue reading Analysis October 5, 2017 27:22 MIN Mental Health and the Psychological Impact of War on Individuals, Families, and Communities in Yemen: A project to advance research, services, and advocacy The ongoing war in Yemen has spurred the world’s largest food security emergency and the largest cholera epidemic ever recorded. Millions have been sent into abject poverty, the nation’s economy has been destroyed, and basic public services have evaporated. At least 50,000 civilians have been killed or wounded during the conflict, with the belligerent parties committing a litany of war crimes and violations of humanitarian law against the civilian population, including arbitrary detention, torture, indiscriminate attacks and murder. The war thus has immediate and long-term implications for the mental health and psychosocial well-being of Yemenis, with much of the population exposed to serious and repeated stressors, harm, and trauma. The challenges to addressing the psychological needs of Yemenis are daunting:… Continue reading The Yemen Review October 3, 2017 13:19 MIN Yemen at the UN – September 2017 Review Summary: In September, more than two dozen heads of state highlighted the plight of Yemenis and the need to end the conflict in speeches before the United Nations General Assembly. At the 36th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, a resolution was adopted to establish an international group of experts to investigate human rights abuses in Yemen since the beginning of the war. This comes after more than two years of lobbying by UN officials, UN member states and human rights groups for an international inquiry into war crimes in Yemen. In Belgium, the European Union hosted several dozen tribal leaders from Yemen in exploratory talks regarding potential new avenues for conflict resolution and track II negotiations.… Continue reading Analysis September 29, 2017 35:22 MIN The evolution of militant Salafism in Taiz By Bushra Al-Maqtari The rise of Salafi militias in the Yemeni city of Taiz has contributed to the now frequent outbursts of violence there between ostensibly pro-government factions. It has also helped foster an environment conducive to extremist groups such as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). If not addressed directly, these developments are likely to continue destabilizing the city and wider governorate well after any potential resolution to the larger conflict in Yemen. While Taiz has traditionally been known for its leftist political tendencies, the Salafi presence has grown steadily in recent decades. Prior to Yemen’s 2011 uprising, however, local adherents to this ultra-conservative branch of Sunni Islam, as elsewhere in Yemen, had been staunchly apolitical and focused their activities on charitable… Continue reading The Yemen Review September 12, 2017 16:45 MIN Yemen at the UN – August 2017 Review Summary: In August, a confidential draft of the United Nation’s “Children and Armed Conflict” report recommended that the Saudi-led military coalition intervening in the Yemen war be named to the so-called “child killer” list. This annual UN list names government forces, terrorist organizations and armed groups that perpetrate wanton acts of violence against children in conflicts around the world. Through the latter half of August, the Saudi-led coalition staged various UN-affiliated events at which it emphasized the breadth and depth of its humanitarian assistance to Yemen. A Yemen Sanctions Committee report last month said that the Saudi-led coalition was causing significant obstacles to humanitarian aid deliveries in Yemen and undermining safeguards meant to prevent it from abusing the UN-sanctioned arms… Continue reading Analysis September 6, 2017 12:54 MIN How currency arbitrage has reduced the funds available to address the humanitarian crisis The disparity between the official exchange rate and the market exchange rate of the Yemeni rial that developed during the current conflict led to large-scale profiteering through currency arbitrage. In particular, Yemeni banks exchanging foreign funds for international humanitarian organizations reaped significant profits at the expense of the intended aid recipients in Yemen. The Central Bank of Yemen’s (CBY) decision this August to float the rial, while helpful in reducing currency arbitrage, is optimal for neither currency stability nor humanitarian aid purposes. Given the central bank’s current weakness, the thinness of the country’s exchange market and the potential for volatility on a day-to-day basis when large transactions occur, fully floating the rial risks its rapid devaluation – a critical issue… Continue reading The Yemen Review August 9, 2017 18:35 MIN Yemen at the UN – July 2017 Review Summary: In July, Yemen’s cholera epidemic became the largest ever recorded in one country in a single year, with the World Health Organization recording 430,000 suspected incidents and almost 2,000 associated deaths with the disease by month’s end. This comes following the UN declaring Yemen the world’s largest food security emergency earlier this year. Pro-government forces seized the Khalid bin Walid military base from Houthi fighters and the allied forces of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Taiz governorate last month, resulting in the most significant battlefield success for the Yemeni government since its forces captured the port city of Mokha in January. Continuing rivalries and sporadic violence amongst armed groups supporting the government, however, continued to undermine security in… Continue reading Analysis August 5, 2017 19:35 MIN The destabilizing legacy of US military aid and counterterrorism efforts in Yemen By Adam Baron, Maged Al-Madhaji and Waleed Alhariri Since the administration of United States President George W. Bush, Washington has provided military assistance to the Yemeni government under the stated goal of bolstering the Yemeni Armed Forces’ capacity to combat Yemen’s local branch of al-Qaeda. This assistance was fairly consistently provided up until the outbreak of the most recent conflict in 2015, irrespective of the domestic upheaval taking place in Yemen. Widely supported by US officials, this military assistance has had undemocratic and destabilizing consequences for Yemen. For instance, in the early 2000s, American aid to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh allowed him to consolidate power around his family through the placement of his sons and nephews in key positions… Continue reading The Yemen Review July 7, 2017 19:09 MIN Yemen at the UN – June 2017 Review Summary In June, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted a presidential statement regarding the Yemeni crisis – the first council outcome on Yemen in almost 14 months. A UNSC presidential statement, while important as a statement of council policy, is considered less weighty than a UNSC resolution and lacks the mandatory enforcement power of a Chapter 7 resolution. In the United States, a bipartisan effort in Congress to block the sale of precision guided munitions to Saudi Arabia – due to concerns they would be used against civilian targets in Yemen – narrowly failed to pass in a US Senate vote. By month’s end, however, the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations announced that it was blocking all new… Continue reading Analysis June 17, 2017 10:18 MIN Iran and Houthis: Between political alliances and sectarian tensions By Maysaa Shuja Al-Deen Houthis’ missiles targeting Saudi Arabia became more developed and far-reaching during the current war, thus prompting questions about Iran’s role in Yemen. Many stories circulated about Iran smuggling weapons to Houthis despite the blockade and tight control on all air, land and sea ports in the country. It is also believed that Iranian experts are developing Houthis’ weapon capacities. Articles and research papers either undermine the Iranian-Houthi relationship questioning any ties between them to appease Saudi Arabia’s concerns and dismiss its war on Yemen as unnecessary, or they represent Houthis as Iranian puppets, thus making the Saudi war a proxy one against Iran and serving the strategic goals of the kingdom. But, many facts prove that the truth lies somewhere… Continue reading News June 14, 2017 05:21 MIN Dramatic Increase in Lethal Strikes in Yemen Under Trump, Urgent Need for Greater Transparency and Accountability Hundreds of families of those killed in U.S. strikes in areas far from any traditional battlefield have a right to know what happened to their loved ones and why, say U.S. and Yemeni civil society organizations NEW YORK, June 13, 2017 –The U.S. government must take urgent steps to account for the hundreds of reported civilian deaths it has caused over more than a decade in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, said the Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic and the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, in a comprehensive report released today covering 15 years of U.S. counterterrorism strikes. “Almost none of the families of the hundreds reported killed by the U.S. have received any justice, or even acknowledgement,” said Waleed… Continue reading