3,000 Days of Aggression: Saudi-led Coalition’s War on Yemen

On a night three thousand days ago, without any warning, the Saudi ambassador in Washington announced his country’s brutal and barbaric aggression against Yemen, in a military alliance with several countries that had fallen under the influence of Saudi and American money. Supported by direct American and British backing and uninterrupted international sponsorship, this aggression was justified under the pretext of restoring the so-called “legitimacy” which has now become the world’s biggest exposed lie.

On June 12th, three thousand days had passed since the Saudi-led coalition began its criminal acts in Yemen, a barbaric aggression that unmasked all pretenses, revealing the falsehood and hypocrisy of humanity in the entire world.

The primarily American-backed Saudi aggression started under the name “Operation Decisive Storm,” but it destroyed every corner of Yemen. Over half a million airstrikes and shells were launched by aircraft, launchers, and artillery of the aggressive storm countries. No humans, trees, or even stones were spared from these attacks. Most of Yemen’s cities, villages, infrastructure, facilities, bridges, roads, hospitals, and schools were targeted.

On March 26, 2015, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia led a military alliance consisting of 17 Gulf, Arab, and Western countries, including the United States and Britain, in a heinous criminal war against the Yemeni people. This war had no historical precedent, burning everything in its path and focusing on bombing all the vital aspects of Yemeni cities and villages.

The coalition quickly imposed a suffocating blockade on all Yemeni ports, airports, and land crossings, comprehensively and systematically preventing the arrival of medicine, fuel, food, and basic commodities to the country. Yemen was isolated from the entire world, causing massive destruction, massacres, atrocities, and unprecedented famine and death in modern history due to the unjust siege.

The Saudi-American aggression did not spare any aspect of Yemeni life, including work, education, military, security, politics, and economics. It went even further, occupying Yemeni islands and ports, fully controlling them, and plundering their resources, including Yemen’s oil and gas wealth. The Central Bank of Yemen was also relocated to Aden to control Yemeni resources, causing the largest humanitarian catastrophe for Yemeni employees and their families, as their salaries have been completely cut off since September 2016 until today. Yemeni resources were shamelessly transferred to the banks of the aggressor countries.

Recently, Reuters, the world’s largest news agency, reported the possibility of the Central Bank of Yemen in the alleged capital Aden going bankrupt, claiming that the bank’s reserve cash stockpile was running out. This only demonstrates the confusion and reckless policies led by the aggressor countries, aiming to destabilize and destroy the remaining Yemeni economy.

According to documented statistics, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia committed unparalleled crimes during this period of aggression. Over 50,000 Yemenis were killed in bombings and military warfare, while more than 200,000 Yemenis died due to the siege, starvation, and epidemics. All of this occurred while the hypocritical world silently watched.

After three thousand days of aggression, the protracted war and siege on the Yemeni people have caused the largest humanitarian crises in the world, or what could be described as the worst famine in human history, according to the United Nations itself. All false pretexts and titles have been exposed and are no longer acceptable. The statements and statistics of the massacres and atrocities committed by the criminal coalition against the Yemenis have also been exposed, becoming a great disgrace on the aggressors’ foreheads and the forehead of humanity.

A recent report by the Women and Children’s Rights Advocacy Organization has revealed that the toll of the Saudi-American aggression on women and children alone has surpassed 13,641 martyrs and casualties by the end of May 2023.

According to the report, which was released last Saturday, the number of martyrs reached 6,357, including 2,454 women and 3,903 children, while the number of wounded exceeded 7,284, including 2,979 women and 4,305 children.

The organization also provided significant and shameful statistics on the Saudi-American aggressor’s crimes of rape, abduction, arrest, and torture of Yemeni women, as well as significant statistics on the destruction of vital facilities in all aspects of life, such as schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, and infrastructure.

Furthermore, the organization has called on the international community, United Nations organizations, human rights and humanitarian bodies to assume their legal and humanitarian responsibilities towards the violations and heinous massacres that have occurred and are happening to civilians in Yemen.

They urged people around the world to take effective and positive action to stop the aggression and protect civilians and to form an independent international committee to investigate all crimes committed against Yemenis and to hold accountable anyone proven to be involved.

The report comes after nine years of war, aggression, and siege, during which the aggressor countries have started to take other paths in recent times, targeting the economy, people’s livelihoods, and their forces, and have started to undermine the foundations of their lives that have helped them to remain steadfast during the past years.

Despite rumors of a new round of negotiations in Sanaa with Saudi Arabia regarding the humanitarian file and reaching a comprehensive political solution, it appears that America has succeeded in slowing down the Saudi steps towards a peace agreement with Sana’a.

After these negotiations had created a relatively positive atmosphere, Saudi Arabia has responded to American pressure and reneged on its commitments that it had made last month.

With the continued procrastination of the coalition countries, led by Saudi Arabia, and the US movements rejecting peace, Sana’a reaffirms its rejection of the state of no war and no peace,  and refuses to justify Saudi pressures.

The Yemeni people are determined to take the options that force the aggression to a just peace. The question that arises here, after three thousand days of a Saudi-led aggression on Yemen in plain sight of the world, is whether Saudi Arabia, its allies, and its American and British supporters are still determined to continue this approach and this criminality, or is it time to name things by their names and achieve a comprehensive and just peace for Yemen, Yemenis, and the region as a whole?