The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Yemeni crisis deepens as rebels detain foes, consumer prices soar
BEIRUT — The rebels who control Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, have tightened their grip on the city and its people in recent weeks, shutting off access to the internet, blocking social media sites and sending gunmen to raid the homes of anyone they suspect of opposing them.
Hundreds of people have been detained, and prices for basic goods like food and fuel are soaring, threatening to exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis.
The power consolidation by the rebels, who are aligned with Iran and known as the Houthis, is a grim new chapter in the war in Yemen and highlights the tremendous barriers facing international efforts to end it.
It also underlines the failure of the Houthis’ foes, who include other Yemeni forces and Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, to turn the rebels’ political isolation into an advantage on the battlefield.
This month began with an event that could have altered the course of the war: the killing by Houthi forces of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former president of Yemen who had been the rebels’ most important ally in the war.
Saleh, who had served as president for three decades before being pushed out in 2012 after an Arab Spring uprising, was a towering figure in Yemeni politics. In allying with the Houthis, an unsophisticated Islamic movement from northern Yemen, Saleh provided both political acumen and well-trained, wellequipped fighting forces.
The Houthi alliance with Saleh’s political party, the General People’s Congress, also gave the rebels a wider political base than they otherwise would have had.
But in the end, Saleh denounced the Houthis and said he wanted to turn a “new page” with Saudi Arabia to end the war. On Dec. 4, the Houthis killed him for it.
Saudi Arabia and the Houthis’ other enemies had long sought to split Saleh and the rebels, believing that the Houthis’ forces would fold easily if Saleh’s loyalists turned against them. But they were unprepared to capitalize on the situation when it actually happened, and the Houthis have since done all they can to make sure Saleh’s remaining loyalists pose no threat.
That has led to the crackdown in Sanaa and other Houthi-controlled areas, with Houthi fighters arresting hundreds of Saleh’s loyalists and locking them up, said Adel al-Shoga, a leader of Saleh’s party who is in Cairo.
About 45 of the party’s top 50 leaders are still in Sanaa, he said, and about 15 of them are under house arrest. The rest are in hiding, looking for ways to sneak themselves and their families out of the city.
“They are living in fear,” Shoga said of his wife and children, who remain in the city. “They spend every minute wondering if they will get caught.”
Saleh’s killing came after he
had forged new contacts with Saudi Arabia and its allies, which hoped he and loyalists could turn the tide of the war. Even Western nations like the U.S. hoped Saleh’s party could play a role in talks to end the conflict, which began in 2014 when the Houthis and forces loyal to Saleh seized Sanaa, later sending the internationally recognized government into exile.
A few months later, a coalition led by Saudi Arabia began a punishing bombing campaign that has failed to push the Houthis back while intensifying a humanitarian crisis.
But members of Saleh’s party interviewed recently said that instead of turning the party against the Houthis, Saleh’s death had shattered it.
The General People’s Congress was never really united by a shared vision as much as it was held together by Saleh’s leadership and his ability to distribute patronage, analysts said. Once he was gone, little held the group together.
Even though many members seethed at the Houthis for killing Saleh, few wanted to change sides and join the Saudi-led coalition that had been bombing them for years. And those who may have wanted to fight the Houthis lacked the ability to do so.