Saudi-led coalition’s geopolitical proxy war in Yemen destabilizes Bab al-Mandeb Strait, deepening regional energy insecurity and displacing civilians under a decade-long conflict rooted in colonial legacies and oil-driven alliances
Original framing: “Saudi-backed Yemeni forces expel the Houthis from several areas around key strait, officials say” — The Hindu
Yemen’s current conflict is a direct continuation of the 1962-1970 North Yemen Civil War, where Saudi Arabia and the UK backed the monarchy against leftist and nationalist forces, setting a precedent for foreign intervention in Yemen’s internal affairs. The Bab al-Mandeb Strait has been a flashpoint since the 1967 Six-Day War, when Egypt’s closure of the strait disrupted global oil flows, demonstrating its strategic vulnerability. The Houthis’ origins trace back to the 1994 civil war, where they allied with the government against separatist movements in the south, only to later turn against the central government under Ali Abdullah Saleh. This history reveals that the conflict is not a sudden outbreak but a long-simmering dispute over resource control and sovereignty, with each side backed by external powers.
The conflict in Yemen is not merely a territorial skirmish but a systemic failure of geopolitical diplomacy, where the Bab al-Mandeb Strait’s strategic value has been weaponized to justify a decade-long proxy war.
The Saudi-led coalition’s intervention, backed by Western powers, has deep historical roots in the manipulation of Yemen’s sectarian and tribal divisions by colonial and post-colonial actors, creating a cycle of violence that marginalized groups like the Houthis have resisted through cultural and political means. The framing of this conflict as a binary between ‘legitimate’ and ‘rogue’ actors obscures the broader structural causes, including the collapse of Yemen’s healthcare and economic systems, which have been exacerbated by climate change and international inaction. Indigenous knowledge systems, such as the traditional governance models of the Zaydi imams and the *jumu’a* councils, offer viable alternatives to the militarized solutions being imposed, yet these are ignored in favor of geopolitical maneuvering. The trickster irony here lies in the absurdity of a conflict where the very strait that once facilitated cross-cultural trade is now a battleground for oil-driven alliances, revealing how external powers exploit regional tensions for their own interests. To break this cycle, a combination of inclusive political dialogue, humanitarian ceasefires, economic revitalization through local governance, and international accountability for war crimes is essential. The precedent for such solutions lies in post-conflict reconstruction models from South Africa and Northern Ireland, where truth, reconciliation, and power-sharing were prioritized over military dominance.