Strategies of the Coalition in the Yemen War

Aerial Bombardment and Food War

Martha Mundy’s report, “Strategies of the Coalition in the Yemen War” is now available as pdf (see also below) through the World Peace Foundation. The Report offers unique data and graphics documenting:

• The pattern of aerial bombardment across the duration of the armed conflict, including information about: the proportion of military, civilian and unknown targets; and the timeline, frequency, and location of targeting; 

• The pattern of targeting agricultural sites in Yemen: displayed over time and across governorates, the types of agricultural sites targeted, and the frequency of targeting;

• The systematic pattern of targeting fishermen, boats and installations.

"This report gives an overview not available elsewhere of the impact of the Coalition bombing campaign on food production and distribution in rural Yemen and on fishing along the Red Sea coast. The timing of its release appears opportune. Press coverage of this forgotten war has increased; there is some diplomatic and political movement; and the report on human rights violations during the Yemen war, prepared under the aegis of the Group of Eminent Experts, has been submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Warnings of the risk of mass starvation echo ever more shrilly…

If one places the damage to the resources of food producers (farmers, herders, and fishers) alongside the targeting of food processing, storage and transport in urban areas and the wider economic war, there is strong evidence that Coalition strategy has aimed to destroy food production and distribution in the areas under the control of Sanʿaʾ. As described above, from the autumn of 2016, economic war has compounded physical destruction to create a mass failure in basic livelihoods."