The following is the Aug. 5, 2024, Congressional Research Service In Focus report, Yemen: Conflict Red Sea Attacks and U.S. Policy.
From the report
Yemen is a conflict-afflicted nation along the strategic Bab al Mandab Strait, one of the world’s most active shipping lanes. Since 2015, a civil war has pitted the Iran-backed Houthi movement against Yemen’s internationally recognized government, its backers, and other anti-Houthi forces. Foreign intervention complicates the conflict, which has contributed to what United Nations agencies have described as “one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.” An uneasy truce has frozen conflict lines since 2022. The Iran-backed Houthis have launched numerous attacks on international shipping since October 2023, ostensibly to compel Israel to end its war with Hamas. U.S.-led coalition patrol operations and counterstrikes seek to restore security in the Red Sea corridor, but Yemen’s underlying conflict remains unresolved and the long-term threats the Houthis could pose present a vexing challenge for policymakers to consider.
Overview and Key Stakeholders
Long-running Yemeni disputes over governance and energy resources have deepened since 2015 amid foreign influence and intervention. The Republic of Yemen was formed by a 1990 merger of the Sana’a-led Yemen Arab Republic (a former Ottoman province, then Zaydi Shia-ruled kingdom) and the Aden-led People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (a former British colony and protectorate, then independent Marxist regime). North-south tensions and conflict have recurred since the 1960s, and a southern independence movement remains active. Tribal networks and local actors are the most influential parties in many areas of the country.
Arab Spring-era protests and unrest led the president of the Republic of Yemen Government (ROYG) to resign in 2012. A U.N.-mediated transition and national dialogue sought to broker new governing arrangements. The Houthi movement (alt. Ansar Allah or Partisans of God), a north Yemen-based Zaydi Shia network, opposed U.N.-backed outcomes and resumed an insurgency. In 2014, the Houthis seized the capital, Sana’a, and later advanced on Aden. ROYG leaders fled and requested international intervention. In March 2015, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia began a military campaign against the Houthis, whose attacks across Yemen’s borders grew in complexity and scope with deepening support over time from Iran. The United States has provided logistical, intelligence, and advisory support to the coalition, but ended aerial refueling and some arms sales to Saudi Arabia in response to civilian casualties and congressional action.
In 2019, tensions between anti-Houthi forces in the ROYG (backed by Saudi Arabia) and the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC, backed by the United Arab Emirates) led to open warfare. A 2020 power-sharing agreement formed a coalition government. Since 2022, an eight-person Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) has led Yemen’s internationally recognized government. That year, the ROYG and Houthis signed a truce, halting military operations and establishing humanitarian measures. Lines of conflict, in some areas mirroring Yemen’s pre-unification borders, remain static. Meanwhile, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State have remained active in remote areas.
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