In War-Torn Yemen, Signs of Hope Emerge

     In 2022, in spite of the outbreak of a once-in-a-century war in Europe, the world saw positive steps toward peace in other nations that had historically been riddled with conflict. In Afghanistan, the number of conflict-related deaths dropped from 40,000 to 4,000 and could dip beneath 1,000 in 2023, which means it has been reduced from "major war" status to "war" status and could fall to "minor conflict" status this year. In Iraq and Syria, the United States and allies like the Syrian Democratic Forces continued to take high-level terrorist leaders off the battlefield as the number of terrorism-related fatalities continued to fall: Iraq, and possibly Syria, are also likely to see their violence fall to "minor conflict" status within the next few years. In Ethiopia, a five-month truce and then a full end were announced to the Tigray War, the most devastating conflict in the world at the time; the Ethiopian government and the Tigrayan rebels have resumed flights and humanitarian aid to the country's northernmost regions as troops lay down their weapons and foreign agitators like those from Eritrea leave the country. Then there's Yemen.

     With the possible exception of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the civil war in Yemen has been the most devastating conflict any nation has suffered through in the 21st century. The war between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels has been compounded by terrorism, an outbreak of cholera, and a plethora of natural disasters that have left 80+ percent of the nation's residents poverty-stricken, internally-displaced persons. This is the last conflict in the Middle East with "major war" status. The fact that it serves as a proxy battlefield for tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia and the United States has only made the destruction all the more tangible and foundational. However, even in this setting, there is reason to hope that the end of this war may be near.

     After years of gradual decline, in 2021, the cholera outbreak that killed 4,000 people was nearly entirely eradicated, with only a handful of deaths each year in 2021 and 2022. In 2022, after nearly seven years of inaction, the UN created a plan and secured much of the funding necessary to remove the FSO Safer vessel, a tanker full of oil that has slowly decayed and now poses an environmental risk that could cause more damage to the Arabian Peninsula's wildlife than the 2010 spill did to the Gulf of Mexico. In spite of a series of delays, the project is on track to move the oil into a stable vessel and then begin gradually moving its contents to the mainland, avoiding another major blow to the nation's economy as well as its environment. In recent months, the US, the UK, and other nations have also begun seizing Iranian weapons bound for Yemen by the shipload, exposing the regime's destructive role in the conflict and directly saving lives.

     The biggest reason for hope, however, comes from within Yemen itself. In 2022, a seven-month truce that included a cease to hostilities, the establishment of a presidential transitional council, an increase in humanitarian aid, and a resumption of flights to the capital city of Sana'a reduced the conflict in Yemen from "major war" to "war" for the first time in seven years. Unfortunately, the truce ended last autumn. However, aside from directly saving tens of thousands of lives, it demonstrated that peace is entirely possible, and the violence has remained lower than in years past in spite of the end of the ceasefire. As talks have resumed in recent weeks, I firmly believe that 2023 will be the year the war in Yemen ends. 

     The world made remarkable progress in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Yemen in 2022. In 2023, we need to continue that progress and bolster efforts at peace in Mexico, in Myanmar, and in Ukraine. The world has had enough war. It's time for peace, for shared progress based on our shared humanity and the excellence we have demonstrated ourselves capable of achieving, all bolstered by the infinite prospects contained in one word: possibilities.