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The Saudi-Houthi Conflict: Is The War Sectarian Or Driven By Geopolitical Interests?
The USA-Israel war against Iran has never been confined to the skies alone; it has spread to the waters and straits, eventually blockading the key lifelines of the global economy. While there are no signs of truce on the horizon, the war seems on the verge of escalation, and the intertwining of more factions and partners appears inevitable. The recent Saudi-Houthi escalation is spiralling as another arm of the wider regional conflict, and another 12% of global trade, along with 20% of world trade, seems on the brink of collapse.
Illustration by The Geostrata
The renewed escalation began in July when the Yemeni government tried to bomb the Houthi delegation landing at Sanaa airport, which has been under Saudi siege for a decade. What followed was a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and retaliatory strikes by both sides. The recent capture of key strategic regions and ports along the Red Sea coast by Houthis and the air bombing campaigns across Yemen by Saudi Arabia have devastated the region, pushing it back into an abyss of poverty, loss of life, and grave humanitarian crises.
According to reports, Saudi Arabia has fired more than 1250 airstrikes in just the past month, and the ground military escalation in the region of Taiz and Aden has further led local Yemenis to be displaced and, in the worst case, flee to Djibouti.
According to a report, since July, nearly 198,000 Yemenis have been displaced, and thousands have been forced to flee to Djibouti to save their lives.
The question that lingers in the air is what has actually led to this Saudi-Houthi war, and is there any greater cause to fight for than humanity itself?
THE CAUSE
Yemen’s history is laden with Ottoman rule and Western colonisation, and vested political interests have split the country in half since the early 17th century. Under President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the unification of Yemen was pushed in 1990, but the efforts were hasty, and mistakes made then sowed the seeds of future conflicts.
Yemen is known in history as the cradle of culture and religious diversity, and different sects of Islam still mark Yemeni society. What led to the Houthi rise was another branch of Islam, known as Saudi Wahhabism. Though Yemen was a pluralist Islamic society, the rise of Sunni ideology was seen as an attempt to push aside the Zaydi Shia ideology. Thus, Zaydi founded the “Al Shabab al-Mu’min” Movement, which means the faithful rise of youth, in 1992.
The movement originated with the sole purpose of Zaydi cultural education and revival; however, with the drastic changes in the political environment, the movement became a political movement under the leadership of Hussein al-Houthi, and that’s how the Houthis emerged. They called for an Islamic revolution against the Western-backed Saleh government to fight back against Western intervention and oppression.
Afghanistan’s invasion of 2001 and later Iraq’s invasion in 2003 made the Houthi forces convinced that Yemen’s invasion by Western forces was an imminent threat. This led to increased confrontations and eventually to six wars between the Houthis and the Saleh government between the periods of 2004 and 2010.
The Saleh government was backed by the Saudi regime and was supported by Americans, and the civilians were frustrated by the economic hardships, unemployment, and lack of resources under his presidency, which amplified the Houthis’ calls for a more just system and development.
Later, in 2011, the Arab Spring reached Yemen. Thousands of Yemenis took to the streets to protest against the corrupt government. The outrage was fueled by unemployment, the worst economic conditions, and corruption.
Under pressure, President Saleh agreed to resign under the plan coordinated by the GCC; however, at the last moment, due to his refusal to resign, he faced an attack that led him to flee to Saudi Arabia. After this, his vice president, Hadi, took charge of the presidency and became president.
But even under his presidency, nothing changed, and the crisis worsened further. During his interim presidency, the GDP level fell below the pre-2011 levels, and there was no sign of a planned Yemeni political transition. In July 2014, the Hadi government faced a new wave of discontent from the public, and many protesters were mobilised by Houthis as well. The national dialogue conference failed, and by September 2014, the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa, and what followed after that marks the present conflict in the Middle East.
WHAT HAPPENED AFTER 2014
After the Houthis took control of the capital, President Hadi fled to Aden and later to Saudi Arabia and declared himself the legitimate president, despite having stood down as president before. After seeking refuge in Saudi Arabia, Hadi appealed to the GCC and the UN for military intervention, and on this pretext, Saudi Arabia directly started its bombing and military intervention in Yemen. Subsequently, the United Arab Emirates joined the efforts, and together they led a united front against the Houthis, which led to the retaking of control of Aden in July 2015 and formally established Saudi's firm control over Yemen through air bombing campaigns and a naval blockade.
This conflict paved the way for other adversaries to breed, i.e., ISIS and Al-Qaeda, which now control and remain active in parts of Yemen. Along with them, other radical mercenaries and groups also control different parts of Yemen, like the Southern separatists, which were backed by the UAE. However, divergent strategic interests between Saudi Arabia and the UAE led to UAE forces’ withdrawal in 2018.
This patchwork of different factions and their vested interests has led to the intertwining of the conflicts, hampering the growth and development of the Yemeni people and pushing them back into an unending military conflict. The civil war later became a proxy conflict of global powers along the broader Shia-Sunni divide and formed two fronts. One side is the internationally recognised government backed by Saudi Arabia, and the other side is the Houthis, forming part of the Iran-backed Axis of Resistance.
After years of military stalemates, a landmark UN-brokered truce was made in 2022, offering a period of relative calm. However, the fragile calm broke in 2023, with the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, marking fresh escalation between Houthis and Israel for the cause of a Palestinian state.
Since 2023, tensions have further escalated, with the Houthis targeting commercial shipping, followed by retaliatory strikes by the US and UK against them, and the situation has spiralled further with the recent US-Israel and Iran war.
These years of entrenched military conflicts and reckless air strikes have destroyed the country. The infrastructure is repeatedly being damaged, civilians are being killed, water & essential commodities have become scarce, and all this has led to the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crisis of modern History - the Yemen humanitarian crisis.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN EACH DAY IS WORSE THAN YESTERDAY
Because of the crisis, Yemen largely survives on foreign aid and support; however, only a small percentage of this aid reaches the people in need. In regions of heavy military confrontations, this becomes nearly impossible, and this makes the region the worst hit by the humanitarian crisis. One such region is Taiz, a city located between the territories of the opposing forces, where there is no basic civilian infrastructure or any basic human facilities.
People live in temporary shelters and shared camps, with no WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) facilities or healthy living conditions, which eventually leads to outbreaks of cholera, diphtheria, and other epidemics in Yemen. In 2016, the UN estimated that more than three-quarters of the Yemeni population lacked access to clean drinking water & sanitation, and nearly half lacked access to sufficient food and medicine.
According to DW, nearly 21.6 million of the country’s population need humanitarian aid, which is more than half of the country’s population, and on the Global Hunger Index 2025, Yemen ranked among the bottom states, which reflects the gravity of life in Yemen.
The widespread corruption in aid supplies and concerns like blockades and military confrontations aggravate the suffering of local Yemenis.
One such incident is the 2018 blockade of Al Hudaydah, which further deteriorated the situation in Yemen, leading to the world’s worst famine of the century, with nearly 16 million Yemenis facing starvation. The strategic port was responsible for roughly 70% of the country’s humanitarian aid.
When the blockade was intensified, the UN announced that every 10 minutes, a child is dying due to lack of medical aid and nutrition.
In the crisis, the worst affected are women and children; nearly 80% of the 4.8 million people displaced in Yemen are women and children. The war has worsened gender-based violence against women by making them vulnerable to child marriage, human trafficking, forced begging, and child labour, leaving them deprived of safety and formal education. The years of war have also taken a toll on the mental health of Yemenis, with an estimate of 1 in 5 people suffering from mental health disorders, according to a UNFPA’s 2017 study.
WAY AHEAD
While varied interpretations call it a sectarian war, regional war, or war waged by Western imperialism, no matter the interpretation, the war is definitely a war against humanity. One can’t blame a single faction; rather, there is an interlocking network of factions, groups, and vested interests that is aggravating the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Thus, a push towards peace negotiations is the need of the hour rather than further escalation. According to reports, peace negotiations, mediated by Iranians and Omanis between the disputed parties, are underway; however, the recent escalation might hamper the dialogue and diplomatic efforts. In the wider geopolitical interest and narrower causes, the bigger cause of humanity is failing.
As Mahatma Gandhi had said –
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind."
BY NEHA
TEAM GEOSTRATA
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