Yemen’s capital Sanaa: Three years under rebel control
Houthi rebels captured the Yemeni capital Sanaa three years ago today with the help of forces loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh. The conflict that followed Saleh’s departure has left thousands dead and fractured the impoverished country. Here is a timeline of key events.
A president forced out
Inspired by regional uprisings in what becomes known as the Arab Spring, Yemenis take to the streets in early 2011 to demand the departure of Saleh, a military man who has ruled with an iron fist since 1978. For the next 11 months the protests grow, drawing in the opposition, diplomats and military officers, and resulting in deadly clashes. Under pressure from the Gulf monarchies, Saleh agrees in November 2011 to hand over power in exchange for immunity from prosecution for him and his family. A presidential election is held in February 2012, with only one candidate: Saleh’s low-profile deputy Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, seen as a man of consensus. He is sworn in days later.
Rebellion erupts, Sanaa is seized
Amid difficulties facing a national dialogue charged with drawing up a new constitution, tensions intensify between Yemen’s majority Sunnis and minority Shiites, who feel marginalized after Saleh’s departure. Rebels from the Shiite Houthi group in 2014 launch an offensive from their strongholds in the north and push towards Sanaa, intent on expanding a hoped-for autonomous unit in a future federation. On September 21, 2014, they storm the capital and seize the government headquarters and state radio and military sites after days of conflict in which more than 270 people are killed. The rebels, backed by Shiite Iran, are now allied with forces loyal to Saleh, a former foe after he had cracked down on Houthi s while president. By January the rebels and their allies have also taken control of the presidential palace. Hadi flees to Yemen’s second city, Aden, which he later declares is the “provisional capital”.
‘Decisive Storm’ and failed truces
On March 26, 2015, nine regional countries in a Sunni Saudi-led coalition launch operation “Decisive Storm” with air strikes on the rebels to defend embattled Hadi and his internationally recognised government. They claw back some territory but also have to deal with increasing attacks by Sunni jihadists allied to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. The UN and US organize three rounds of fruitless peace talks over 2015 and 2016. Seven truces are agreed, but all broken.
Cracks on both sides
In April 2017 Hadi fires the former Aden governor Aidarous Al-Zoubeidi, who then goes on to form a council that aims to “pursue the mission of liberating” South Yemen. The following month, thousands of Yemenis in the south — which was an independent state until 1990 when it was unified with North Yemen — march in support of Zoubeidi.
There are splits in the rebel camp, too, with the Houthi s on August 23 calling Saleh a “traitor” after he dismissed the Iran-backed group as a “militia” in a speech. The next day hundreds of thousands of Yemenis attend a rally marking 35 years since the founding of Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) in a major show of support. The tensions erupt into clashes between the allies in which a colonel loyal to Saleh and two rebels are killed. Saleh’s party warns it could push the capital into all-out war but on September 5 the ex-president says that, even though the Houthi rebels had feared a “coup” by his party, there was “no crisis and conflict at the moment”. —AFP