ABSTRACT
The humanitarian situation in Yemen remained catastrophic, with the majority of the population of 28 million Yemenis in need of humanitarian assistance at the end of 2018. The Saudi-led coalition destroyed the Yemeni air force and retook sparsely populated southern Yemen from Ansar Allah in summer 2015. The intervention of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen is meant to counter Iranian influence in the region, but it also aims at a diversification of transportation routes to Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter. Weapons of various kinds reach Yemen not only via the west coast and its ports but also through coalition-supported militias selling their weapons on well-established arms markets. The Yemeni Congregation for Reform is a political party founded after the unification of Yemen Arab Republic and People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1990. In light of the Saudi–Iranian competition for regional hegemony, it is tempting to frame the Yemen conflict as a sectarian conflict.
