The business of war in Yemen – how Saudi

Diplomatic hiccups are one thing — an awkward handshake or quibbles between French and Iranian diplomats over whether the banquet table will feature a few bottles of Château Latour.

It’s quite another for a prominent journalist, editor and political adviser to be ambushed inside his country’s embassy and butchered by a highlevel hit squad.

That’s what Saudi Arabia is accused of having done to Jamal Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi embassy in Turkey on October 2.

Even in an age of anti-diplomacy when protocol is subsumed by late-night Twitter tirades, what Saudi Arabia is accused of is unprecedented.

The kingdom has denied involvement but hasn’t offered a credible explanation for Khashoggi’s disappearance either. It has led to a rising chorus of condemnation and a boycott by major investors of an upcoming Saudi business conference dubbed the “Davos in the Desert”.

All this, however, occurs against the backdrop of an endless war in Yemen, which the United Nations warned this week could plunge 13-million people into a famine. It would be the world’s worse famine in 100 years. And it would be avoidable, but for Saudi ambition and the rest of the world’s disregard.

The war and the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East’s poorest country have always been given short shrift by the international media, despite Yemen topping several of the “world’s worst” categories, including the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and the world’s worst cholera outbreak.

Media reports cite a figure of 10 000 killed in the conflict. But, in what may signal a lack of international interest in it, this figure has not been revised for the past two years even though the fighting has continued. A less conservative estimate put the figure at 50 000.

Before direct Saudi military involvement, Yemen was already in a precarious state, with armed parties vying for power and influence — Houthi rebels, a secessionist movement in the south, nebulous formations of al-Qaeda-linked militants, tribal militias shifting with crisscrossing and fluid tribal alliances and a weak central government. Added to that is a secretive and widely despised United States drone campaign.

When the Saudi-led coalition stepped in, in March 2015, on the side of Yemen’s internationally recognised government of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to thwart Houthi advances, things rapidly deteriorated.

An aerial bombing campaign was followed by ground incursions and a naval blockade that makes aid delivery a “logistical nightmare”, according to Anas al Hamati, a Yemeni aid worker with the South African nongovernmental organisation Gift of the Givers. “Our resources are limited. The fighting parties prevent us from reaching so many areas and there’s no political common ground for a solution.”

Al Hamati says his organisation funds three hospitals in Yemen, provides 20000 litres of clean water a day and, since May, received more than 25 containers of food, clothing and medical supplies from South Africa.

“But the needs are huge,” he adds. Although the South African public has proven willing to support humanitarian intervention, the government and the South African arms industry have been fuelling the fires in Yemen.

The Houthis are said to be backed by Saudi Arabia’s nemesis in the region, Iran. South Africa and Iran, which have close ties, signed a memo-