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DALLAS — Misericordia University Assistant Professor Christopher Stevens believes Tuesday’s Saudi-led bombing of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, reflects the chaos the Middle Eastern country has experienced throughout its history.
According to the Associated Press, Saudi Arabia, joined by about 10 other Sunni Muslim countries, targeted a weapons depot and army camps surrounding the city.
The attack aimed at Houthi rebels, a Shiite sect, followed five days of fighting and is estimated to have resulted in 93 civilians casualties, according to the U.N. human rights office in Geneva.
The turmoil followed the forced resignation of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in late January, leaving Houthis in effective control of the country.
A month later, Hadi rescinded his resignation, taking up residence in Aden, creating further confusion.
The Saudi-led coalition is now demanding his full return to power.
Stevens, who predicted the probability of chaos following Hadi’s ousting, said the key to preserving the country’s sovereignty and regaining a semblance of peace might lie in a common enemy: the Al-Qaeda in the Arab peninsula.
“I believe if Houthi fighters, military still loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh (who stepped down in 2012) and Hadi loyalists were forced to work together,” said Stevens, “it might necessitate a move toward unity.”
Still Stevens admits, there would be no guarantee.
“With a per capita annual income of $2,500 a literacy rate of only 65%, limited access to internet resources and a generational gender gap, Yemen has never had opportunity to thrive or to sustain a move toward democracy,” said Stevens.
He said although the Houthis are perceived as receiving strong support from Iran, it is unclear the nature of that support.
“To what degree those forces allied with Iran is impossible to know,” said Stevens.
He believes Yemen would benefit from increased attention from the international community.
“In efforts to support global security, the United States often fails to complete what it has started,” said Stevens, “we offer provide assistance to distressed countries only until it stops benefiting our own.”
He said world powers are selectively willing to expend blood or finances to support democracy globally.
Stevens said the continuing conflict is in part political, in part religious and certainly economic.
“With the majority of Yemeni residents struggling to obtain basic necessities,” Stevens said, “political influence coincides with coveted economic power.”
Stevens said the conflict, and any conflict, would end in one of two ways.
“Either one side is able to impose its will on the other side,” he said, “or both sides exhaust their energy and resources, and and becoming willing to negotiate.”
In the meantime, according to the Associated Press, Yemeni civilians, rocked by the coalition’s bombing campaign, are struggling to find refuge in a country now defined by violence and unrest.