The return of the Yemeni government, including President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, to Yemen, in part to ensure all preparations are in place for an imminent offensive to liberate the rest of the northern parts of the country, is a strong signal of a steadily returning stability and confidence, at least in most parts of Yemen.
Services are being restored in southern parts of the country. Most hospitals in Aden and other major cities there have resumed functioning and the school season is in full swing. Essential aid reaches the south regularly thanks to the efforts of the Saudi-led coalition. In contrast, the humanitarian situation in the northern parts is, unfortunately, deteriorating. Areas under the control of Al Houthi militias and their allies suffer from severe food and water shortages and a lack of essential services, notably, medical amenities. Southern areas liberated by the Yemeni resistance forces reel under constant indiscriminate shelling by Al Houthis. Civilian casualties are reported daily by human rights monitors and regularly condemned by the United Nations.
The UN offered Yemenis hope recently when it managed to get the two parties to agree to peace talks, due to take place in Geneva by the end of this month. President Hadi was quick to name government negotiators and reaffirm the government’s commitment to peaceful settlement based on UN resolution 2216 and the Gulf Initiative, the basis of the power-sharing agreement signed by all Yemeni parties four years ago. However, it is evident that Al Houthis and their allies, militias loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, are stalling the proposed talks, ignoring the suffering of the Yemeni people in the north. The Yemeni people are looking for a peaceful solution to the civil strife. But it seems that the militias, intoxicated by pitiless control over defenceless people in small parts of a country that has been torn by war for years, prefer to prolong the crisis. It is high time that Yemenis in Sana’a and other northern towns rise against the militia rule. Al Houthis and their allies must pay a price for throwing the country into the abyss.
