The Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government have not met in UN-sponsored talks since 2016. The meeting is focusing on building confidence between the two parties.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Al Zekri
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UN-brokered peace talks between the warring parties in Yemen's conflict began on Thursday in Sweden. The meeting is the latest attempt to end a civil war that has ravaged the country and brought it to the brink of famine.
Representatives of Yemen's government, the UN special envoy Martin Griffiths and members of the Houthi rebel militia are participating in the talks, which are set in the town of Rimbo, north of Stockholm. They are slated to run for one week.
The Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran, have been locked in a power struggle with the Saudi-backed Yemeni government since late 2014, when the rebels took hold of the capital Sanaa.
Direct talks took place previously in 2015 and 2016, but both attempts were unsuccessful. Griffiths had attempted to bring the two sides together for UN-sponsored talks in Geneva in September of this year, but the rebels failed to appear.
Among the reasons were disagreements between Saudi Arabia and Iran over staging a ceasefire, Houthi refusals to surrender major cities and the rebel's capturing of a military base north of Sanaa.
Yemen: An ever-worsening crisis
Yemen has struggled to cope with crises prompted by its atrocious civil war, including catastrophic hunger and devastating cholera outbreaks. DW examines the conflict and how it affects the country's civilian population.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
War: The 'root cause' of Yemen's disasters
The UN has identified conflict as the "root cause" of Yemen's crises. Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the war erupted in 2014, when Shiite Houthi rebels launched a campaign to capture the capital, Sanaa. In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched a deadly campaign against the rebels, one that has been widely criticized by human rights groups for its high civilian death toll.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Fighting keeps food from the famished
The conflict has prevented humanitarian aid from reaching large parts of the civilian population, resulting in more than two-thirds of the country's 28 million people being classified as "food insecure." Nearly 3 million children and pregnant or nursing women are acutely malnourished, according to the UN World Food Program.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Displacement: Converging crises
More than 3 million people have been displaced by conflict, including marginalized communities such as the "Muhammasheen," a minority tribe that originally migrated from Africa. Despite the civil war, many flee conflict in Somalia and head to Yemen, marking the convergence of two major migration crises in the Middle East nation. Yemen hosts around 250,000 Somali refugees, according to UNHCR.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Cholera: A deadly epidemic
The number of suspected cholera cases has exceeded more than 2 million and least 3,700 people have died from the waterborne bacterial infection in Yemen since October 2019, said the WHO. Although cholera can be easily treated, it can kill within hours when untreated.
Image: Reuters/K. Abdullah
Unsuspecting victims of the'war on terror'
In Yemen, violence goes beyond civil conflict: It is considered a strategic front in the war on terrorism. The country serves as the operational base for al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, dubbed the "most dangerous" terrorist group before the rise of the "Islamic State." The US routinely uses drones to target al-Qaida leadership. However, civilians have often been killed in the operations.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Y. Arhab
Children's fate: Future marred by tragedy
In a country paralyzed by conflict, children are one of the most at-risk groups in Yemen. More than 12 million children require humanitarian aid, according to the UN humanitarian coordination agency. The country's education system is "on the brink of collapse," while children are dying of "preventable causes like malnutrition, diarrhea and respiratory tract infections," according to the agency.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
Peace: An elusive future
Despite several attempts at UN-backed peace talks, the conflict continues to rage on. Saudi Arabia has vowed to continue supporting the internationally recognized government of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. On the other hand, Houthi rebels have demanded the formation of a unity government in order to move forward on a political solution. A peace deal, however, remains elusive.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/H. Mohammed
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Confidence building
Sweden's foreign minister Margot Wallstrom opened the talks with a press conference, where she wished both sides the strength to find "compromise and courage" on the difficult task ahead.
Griffiths joined her at the presser and said that the talks represented "a milestone."
"During the coming days we will have a critical opportunity to give momentum to the peace process," the UN special envoy said.
UN officials have lowered expectations ahead of the talks, but they hope that minor steps can be achieved to address Yemen's worsening humanitarian crisis.
This round of meetings has been focused on building confidence among the warring parties, with pre-talk measures that included a prisoner swap agreement and the evacuation of wounded rebels for medical treatment.
The weapons in Yemen's war
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Yemen to seek Hodeida port
The agenda features topics such as the opening of Sanaa airport, lifting the Houthi-imposed siege on Yemen's southwestern city of Taiz and fine tuning the details of the prisoner swap deal.
Yemen's foreign minister Khaled al-Yamani, said ahead of the talks that his government would propose a four-point initiative "demanding the departure of the militia from the western coast and the handing over of the area to the government."
The Yemeni government also plans on requesting that the rebel Houthis relinquish their control over the port of city of Hodeida.
Yemen's war has left at least 10,000 people dead and generated the world's worst humanitarian crisis. International pressure has mounted for the two sides to end the conflict. The United States has called for a ceasefire and reduced some of its logistical aid for the Saudi coalition, while Iran has also signaled support for the talks.
