Saudi-led intervention in Yemen begins
- Date
- 26 March 2015
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Yemen
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
On 26 March 2015 a Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, intervening on behalf of the internationally recognised government of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.
The Houthis, a Zaidi Shia movement aligned with forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, had seized the capital Sanaa and placed Hadi under house arrest, prompting his flight. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other partners, with logistical support from Western governments, sought to roll back the Houthis and counter what they viewed as Iranian influence on their southern border. The intervention turned a domestic power struggle into a protracted and internationalised war. A coalition blockade, collapsing infrastructure and economic ruin produced what the United Nations repeatedly described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with widespread famine, a major cholera outbreak and an estimated 377,000 deaths by early 2022, most from indirect causes such as hunger and lack of healthcare. The war ground into stalemate, and a fragile UN-brokered truce took hold from 2022.
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Further reading
The wider story
A History of the Modern Middle East
The go-to survey of the region from the late Ottoman era to the present.
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