Project

Yemen: Two Years of War

A conflict that began in 2014 as a domestic political struggle between two presidents has sucked the Middle East's poorest country into a lethal regional power play.

Two years into a devastating aerial bombing campaign, plus a deeply divisive ground war, and it is Yemen's civilian population who are paying the heaviest price. More than 18.8 million Yemenis are now in need of humanitarian aid. Famine and a cholera epidemic now loom.

While the rebel-held north of the country remains under heavy bombardment the battle for the central city of Taiz continues after a year-long siege. Meanwhile the south—supposedly under the control of a president still in exile—has turned on another foe, Yemen's al-Qaeda branch and the so-called Islamic State. Young men, radicalized amidst the violence, have wreaked havoc with a stream of deadly suicide attacks.

Journalist Iona Craig's project looks at Yemen’s increasingly fragmented, multi-national conflict and the catastrophic impact on the civilian population.