Yemen is on the brink of collapse and humanitarian catastrophe after two years of continuous fighting which has been dubbed the forgotten war. Beginning a few years ago after the Arab Spring in 2011, the pro-democracy protesters demonstrated on the roads to force President Ali Abed Allah Saleh to end his reign which lasted for thirty-three years ( Laub, 2016) . The response was that he brought economic concessions but refused to abandon power. The government ordered the military to take charge, and they started killing civilians in the capital city of Sanaa. The most prominent commanders in the Yemen forces were supporting the opposition, the grudge of seeing the anti-government protesters die in the hands of the military sparked clashes between the tribal militias and the government troops. Later, there was a brokered deal that saw the transfer of power to the vice president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who then made it to the ballot as a sole candidate ( Hendawi, 2015) . His attempts to amend the constitution and budget sparked anger from the Houthis of the north thus breaking out into a war with the pro-government forces.
The war has left millions of Yemenis in dire need of aid as they have become homeless or hungry. The death toll since the war began has reached more than seven thousand people with more than forty thousand injured since March 2015. The warring factions are both military troops with weapons supporting either President Hadi or the Houthi rebels ( Hendawi, 2015) . This means that no military solution can be put in place to end the war. Both parties have taken an extremist mentality of the bargain and cannot compromise as more troops are being brought in from Sudan and Mauritania by the Saudi government which supports Hadi ( Hill & Nonneman, 2011) . Thus, the only solution which can salvage this country is a political one therefore for the sake of policies, the best that fits is diplomatic policies. For there to be a cease-fire, the two parties must be willing to calm down and move to the talking table with the help of the outsiders like the UN or US.
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However, before the formation of the policies, it is essential to know the reason behind the occurrence of events according to literature. First, Yemen has been in the category of a third world country in that until the twentieth century (the 1960s) it was still under colonial rule (British) in the south and a monarchy to its north. After coups broke out in both regions that plunged the country into decades of violence, the result was reunification in 1990. Since then, the nation became one of the poorest in the area with high unemployment rate. The pain of poverty and the dissatisfaction with the ruling Saleh family made the country agitated for change when the Arab Spring swept across the Middle East and North Africa in 2011. The agitation created a perfect environment for the uprisings in the nation which are yet to be solved to date. The aftermath of the war has been devastating, and the Yemen is considered a failing state as it can no longer provide the political goods to its citizens. Also, it has an unstable central government whose power is restricted within some locality, and the military has no control over the borders as the Saudi government can troop its army in ( Hill & Nonneman, 2011) . According to Ayoob (2007), the reason why a country is considered a third world state is that the current nations that are formed are done so in a time when mass politics is an issue, and international standards of civilization are already set.
A country faces the enormity of the problem that should deal with the state building as all the processes involved is telescoped into one large enterprise. The pressure that arises from the citizens who look up to the elites to fix their problems within the shortest time possible makes the rulers lose their track as they wish to perform the acts in a humane, consensual, and civilized manner within the constraints of time and resources. Thus when they fail, the citizens become dissatisfied and therefore rise against them. Ayoob (2007) is correct in saying that the leaders who take on nations from the start have a lot of pressure in delivering their goodwill to the people. However, it is also true that the leaders at times think that they deserve it all and that the time they have in office is so limited such that all they have to do is stay a little longer by amending the laws and dealing with the rebels. Thus, in such a situation, it means that policies are changing and the state is on the brink of failure. The international communities have to persuade the parties involved that secession is not the same as self-determination and that the latter consists in empowering those factions that have been marginalized from the access of power. According to Rotberg (2007), preventive diplomacy is the first line of action to address a failing state. Lack of it means that the civilians’ human rights will be abused, their liberties stripped and their economic opportunities breached. It is no doubt that the military intervention in the case of Yemen is unlikely as the troops are the ones fighting against each other with the help of other armies from the neighboring Arabian country. Also, there is the point of one contingent fighting for the anti-government citizens, which makes the matter more complicated. Thus, what remains is only for diplomacy to take effect through the intervention of the observers and the warring factions.
In the presence of the international observers and the UN, the following policies can be used to solve the civil war in Yemen.
Disarmament of the Civilians and Militias and Power-sharing
In the prospect of solving the civil conflicts, it is imperative for the government to have the sole monopoly of arms possession. This makes it possible for the leadership to prevent any privy attacks or threats from within its borders. The two parties must, therefore, be talked out of arming the militia as it has caused the damaged already experienced. A disarmament plan would consist of the civilians surrendering their weapons for them to be destroyed or disposed of. As the current government is the one known internationally as the legitimate one, the guns that the military uses is considered legal thus will not be destroyed. This should only be done through the opposition leader compromising to talk to his followers to surrender the arms.
After calling the ceasefire, a coalition should be set up to lead the country till an election is planned in the course of the period that will be decided. The government should consist of the leaders of the two warring factions. In achieving this, both the supporters of the antagonist sides will feel represented. However, one man within the equation who must be out of the equation entirely is the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. This is one man who plunged Yemen to the mess it is in right now. After his 33-year tenure of misrule, he refused to accept the results of elections and thwarted the quest to build an inclusive government. His departure should be by a deal like taking his sons to exile with him. The UN should mediate the formation of a government of national unity which includes the Houthis, and President Hadi, although elected legitimately, has to step down gracefully. The power-sharing process should be a moment of the county’s reconciliation agenda.
Withdrawal of Foreign Interference and Reconstruction
The current situation is that the Saudi Arabian government backs the Hadi government. They supply the artillery and the aid that is required to destroy the militia. It is imperative that the external intervention of other states be withdrawn as they fuel the civil war to greater heights. This involves even the United States, which covertly supports Saudi in the ordeal. It is not ethical for such interventions to come in the country to fuel a war, but instead, it should be reasonable for them to help in the solution of the mess. It is high time to face the fact that bombing and exercising the hard power to the people of Yemen will not solve the issue as every faction is ready for war. The only aid that should be entering the borders of Yemen should be humanitarian ones. As it stands now, it is ironical that the people who supply the humanitarian assistance are the same ones who are fueling the war by providing weapons. Thus, the external influence should be moderated and revisited. The current effort of keeping the peace is founded hastily on the grounds of satisfying Riyadh. The new approach should redefine the equation of all the parties involved in the Yemeni War. A regional agreement within the Arabian Peninsula has to be reconfigured, and a better role for the US be stated.
Saudi Arabia should sober up their hasty decisions of sending airstrikes to Yemen and make sure they entirely foot the bill to facilitate the reconstruction of that state. The kingdom has to restructure its foreign policy into a more rational and thoughtful than the one they went into war.
In conclusion, the Yemen crisis is one which is complicated, and the only way of salvaging the state is through diplomatic both from local and international players. This is the most urgent intervention that requires policy-making due to the involvement of massive military and the role of external parties. Thus, the issue can only be solved politically.
References
Ayoob, M. (2007). State Making, State Breaking, and State Failure. Leashing the dogs of war: Conflict management in a divided world , 95-113.
Hendawi, H. (2015). Arab League Unveils Joint Military Force Amid Yemen Crisis. ABC News, March , 29 , 2015.
Hill, G., & Nonneman, G. (2011). Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States: Elite Politics, Street Protests and Regional Diplomacy . London: Chatham House.
Laub, Z. (2016). Yemen in crisis. Council on Foreign Relations , 19 .
Rotberg, R. I. (2007). The Challenge of the Weak, Failing, and Collapsed States. Leashing the dogs of war: Conflict management in a divided world. 83-94
