Civil war sparked by Arab Spring

The war in Yemen has its roots in the 2011 Arab Spring.

At the time, president Ali Abdullah Saleh – who had been in power since the country’s unification in 1990 – tried to amend the constitution to effectively make him president for life.

Street protests forced him to hand over power to Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in February 2012.

But in September 2014, anti-government forces led by the Houthi tribe and backed by Saleh took over the capital Sana’a.

Forces loyal to Hadi have been fighting the Houthi rebels, who are from Yemen’s north and belong to a small branch of Shia Muslims known as Zaydis.

Saudi Arabia launched an “international coalition” intervention in 2015 in a bid to reinstate Hadi.

Along with the United Arab Emirates, they have carried out air strikes. Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Morocco, Sudan, Jordan and Egypt have also contributed to operations.

The Houthis, meanwhile, are said to be backed by Iran and the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah.

Many believe the Yemen conflict is part of a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

According to the United Nations, the death toll surpassed 10,000 at the beginning of 2017.

The EU have called it the “worst humanitarian crisis in the world”.