In December 2018, the Stockholm Agreement was reached between the parties to the Yemeni conflict. The Agreement was conceived to avoid catastrophic military escalation on the Red Sea Coast of Yemen. Nonetheless, three years later, the conflict in Yemen still rages, endangering the lives of thousands of civilians. In a recent note to the UN Security Council, The UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, expressed his concern about the continuing escalation of the Yemeni civil war.
Grundberg observed that major shifts of the frontlines have caused greater contestation among the parties to the conflict, resulting in an increased number of heavy artillery attacks and airstrikes. Consequently, many civilians have been forced to flee for the second or even third time. Already, in mid-November, renewed hostilities along the Red Sea coast forced over 25,000 people in the area to flee. Vulnerable families do not have access to food, shelter, or protection. Although some food baskets were been provided via airdrops earlier in the year, assistance has recently stopped because of the shift of the frontlines.
In the conflict in Yemen, International Humanitarian Law has not been respected. On 13 November 2021, the Special Envoy reported that ten individuals belonging to local security forces were victims of summary executions. Moreover, public structures such as schools and hospitals which have previously been used for military purposes, are often converted into displacement sites. The risk is that mines and other explosive ordinances (EOs) are present, increasing the chance of casualties. Civilians are endangered because EOs are present along the Red Sea Coast, causing injuries and fatalities. In conclusion, the de-escalation that the Stockholm Agreement was to prompt has not occurred, and the humanitarian situation is worse than ever. As such, Grundberg has called for a Yemeni-owned comprehensive political peace process supported by the International Community to end the eight-year long conflict.
To read more, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/yemen
https://osesgy.unmissions.org/year-after-stockholm-agreement-where-are-we-now
Author: Lorena Bisignano; Editor: Alexander Collin
