Displaying items by tag: Yemen

European countries temporarily halted arms exports to Turkey after its military incursion into Syria. But Europe’s other arms trading partner, Saudi Arabia, has caused deaths or injuries of 18,000 in Yemen, where 24.1 million need humanitarian assistance. Despite these figures, EU countries still have arms deals with the Saudis. The UK only halted arms exports in June after exports licences were found to be unlawful. Saudi Arabia was France's second-biggest weapons client last year: over €1 billion worth, including armoured vehicles used in or near Yemen. Only Spain suspended arms exports to Saudi Arabia, citing ‘use of this type of armament against a civilian population’. Why would EU countries halt arms to Turkey due to conflict, but not to Saudi Arabia for the same reasons? There could be several reasons, but two stand out - business and alliances.

Yemen - Five years of war between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi/US backed government forces have created the world's worst humanitarian crisis. This Iran-Saudi rivalry threatens to grow as Houthis increase rocket attacks on Saudi Arabia. Syria - Assad, aided by Russia and Iran, has won the war. But killings in Idlib Province continue. Libya - A UN-recognised Government rules in Tripoli. A rival government controls much of the east. Each side has oil fields within its territory and its own central bank in this civil war. 1,000+ have been killed and 1.3 million people need urgent humanitarian help. Democratic Republic of Congo –25 years of violence has displaced 4.5 million people. A new government has not brought peace. Armed groups wreak havoc in a conflict fuelled by access to lucrative mineral reserves. A year-old Ebola outbreak has been declared a Global Health Emergency. Afghanistan –Washington is currently trying to convince the Taliban to engage directly with the Kabul government. There is a report today of a new Taliban reconciliation initiative.

A fragile calm took hold in Hodeidah on 18 December, after sporadic gunfire between Houthi fighters and forces loyal to the government. Two days later it was being hailed by many as a positive step on the path to peace for the war-torn country. However the agreement is open to different interpretations by the warring parties. It talks of ‘mutual redeployment of forces’ from Hodeidah and other ports. The Houthis do not see this as meaning that they need to withdraw, while the other side thinks they must do so - a key point of contention. See. Everyone is praying that the truce will hold. The humanitarian situation is beyond atrocious. The majority of malnourished people don't know where they will get their next meal. Women can't produce milk for their children. People die daily. 22 million people need aid. 8.4 million face starvation. Pray for immediate co-ordinated availability and distribution of all that is needed.

On 6 December, delegations from both the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels began peace talks near Stockholm. Abdullah al-Alimi, a representative of the Yemeni government, tweeted that the conference was ‘a true opportunity for peace’. Mohamed Abdelsalam, who heads the Houthi delegation, promised to ‘spare no effort to make a success of the talks’. Pray for God to quell the scepticism of observers. Pray for the Yemeni government to resist launching an all-out attack on the key port city of Hudaydah, currently controlled by the rebels. The talks began encouragingly, with an agreement to exchange 5,000 prisoners: see

Politicians are challenging Donald Trump’s relationship with Saudi Arabia. Senator Elizabeth Warren said that the president has refused to halt weapons sales because he is more interested in appeasing US defence contractors than in holding the Saudis accountable for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder or for thousands of Yemeni civilians killed by those weapons. Senator Bernie Sanders is equally critical of Trump’s relationship with the Saudis, citing it as an example of his liking of foreign dictators. The Senate voted 63-37 to run with Sanders’ resolution to force Trump to end US support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. That same day, it emerged that Riyadh had confirmed a $15 billion deal with defence contractor Lockheed Martin for a missile defence system. One observer said Trump’s determination to preserve Saudi arms sales was an example of the ‘stranglehold of defence contractors on our military policy’.

Peace talks between all sides in Yemen’s conflict could resume soon in Sweden. The date could still slip, but the aspiration is for Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government to meet early in December. They would be supported by a Saudi-backed coalition. Pray for every person needed for these initial talks to make an appearance in Sweden. A demand for 50 wounded Houthi fighters to be transported to Muscat for treatment must be met before Houthi leaders will attend the talks: this should happen soon. Pray for Britain, the US, and other allies to have clear positive conversations with Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of the rebels. Pray for a spirit of mutual trust to be developed. and for communication links to be strengthened. Pray for an increased distribution of UN aid, and for the desperate humanitarian crisis to end.

Save the Children (SCF), using UN data, have found that huge numbers of children under 5 perished from severe hunger. Some 84,701 children may have died between April 2015 and October 2018 because of a lack of food. Parents had to witness their children wasting away, unable to do anything about it. Since the Saudi-Emirati military intervention in March 2015, commercial imports of food through the vital Hodeidah port have been reduced by more than 55,000 tonnes a month, enough to meet the needs of 4.4 million people, half of whom are children, SCF said. The World Food Programme says that up to 14 million Yemenis are now at risk of starvation as fighting rages on in Hodeidah. 'Any further decline in imports could well lead directly to famine,' it warned. Multiple past attempts to hold negotiations between the government alliance and Houthis have failed.

2018 has seen a growth in the persecution of Christians, in some cases with a significant increase. There is a battle going on as more people embrace the Gospel. Here are three nations to pray for – two facing persecution and the third traumatised by civil war.

CHINA

• New regulations on religious affairs were introduced in February of this year. Persecution has intensified – churches have been demolished and crosses destroyed, some churches are seeing pictures of Jesus replaced with pictures of President Xi.
• In the western Xinjiang region over a million Uighurs have been put in “re-education centres”. This is a non-Chinese part of China and there are a heavy army and police crackdown. Christian friends just returned from Xinjiang report that Christians have also been sent to the camps. They cite the case of a Christian friend whose husband has been returned to his country of birth and the wife has been imprisoned for 18 years with no charges so no appeals can be made about her sentence.
• The three self-movement who are registered with the government have been told that nobody under 18 can attend their services to stop “indoctrination.”

Pray for strength and boldness for those caught up in this situation and for God’s love to astound their persecutors.

INDIA

• Persecution is intensifying. Extreme Hindus have an aim to eradicate every Muslim and Christian from India by 2021. In some places, they seem to have support from the government and the police. Pastors have been killed and their own family accused of the murder despite eyewitness reports of Hindu extremists.
• This is also a time of unprecedented church growth with many testimonies of miracles and amazing moves of the Holy Spirit amongst young people. The remarkable children’s prayer movement is growing. One district had no Christians 10 years ago and now has 200 churches.
• Persecution is more likely in traditional rural areas and in the north but radical Hindus can, and do, arise anywhere.

Pray for God’s Holy Spirit to blow on his church. Pray for more of you Lord. More miracles, more conversions, more joy, more children and young people on fire for Jesus. Bless your remarkable people in India.

YEMEN

• Houthi Shia Muslim rebel movement seized large areas of Yemen in 2014 when a new president was appointed. The Houthis went on to take Yemen’s largest city Sanaa, forcing President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi into exile abroad.
• The conflict escalated dramatically in March 2015, when Saudi Arabia and eight other mostly Sunni Muslim Arab states - backed by the US, UK, and France - began air strikes against the Houthis, with the declared aim of restoring Mr. Hadi's government.
• The Iranians backed the Houthis and this impoverished nation became the surrogate battleground for the Middle East’s big players. The UN fears that up to 14 million Yemenis face famine.

Pray for peace and for food to reach the starving. Pray for people disillusioned with Islam to discover Jesus.

Steve Botham, Director of World Prayer Centre

Parliamentary papers revealed that Boris Johnson had a £14,000 all-expenses-paid trip to Saudi Arabia, two weeks before the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulate. Mr Johnson flew to Jeddah for a three-day visit, where reportedly all expenses were paid by the ministry of foreign affairs. His goal was to meet regional figures to promote education for women and girls. When he was foreign secretary, he refused to back halting arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and was accused by human rights groups of blocking a UN investigation into Saudi war crimes committed in Yemen. The UK government’s support of the country has not wavered. Although the USA calls for a Yemen ceasefire (see the World article ‘Yemen: vision of ceasefire), Theresa May does not support this move, telling MPs that it would only work if there is a political deal between parties. See

Pentagon chief James Mattis said the US had been watching the conflict ‘for long enough’, and believes Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are ready for talks. The comments came as the military coalition deployed over 10,000 new troops towards a vital rebel-held port city in the run-up to a new assault. Mattis said, ‘We have got to move toward a peace effort here, and we can't say we are going to do it sometime in the future. We need to be doing this in the next thirty days.’ His comments came at the US Institute of Peace, whose president, Kevin Martin, said that the Yemen needs peace right now, and even thirty days to halt fighting is too long. He added, ‘I think the Trump administration is trying to get out ahead of a stampede. Congress, public opinion and the media have all turned very much against this war.’ See also the UK article ‘Boris Johnson and the Saudis’.