U.S., British bombing of Yemen’s key port threatens renewed famine, war

The United States and British air forces launched a series of air strikes against the Yemeni port city of Al Hudaydah on Oct. 31. This is the second of their kind launched by Western forces against the port, specifically since the beginning of 2024. 

In July, Zionist forces carpet-bombed the Al Hudaydah port region, killing six people and wounding another 80. The July strikes also destroyed oil facilities and a crucial power station. At the time, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the strikes and accused the Zionist entity of unnecessary escalation against Yemen. 

The United Nations World Food Program later found that the July 20 Zionist strikes destroyed 800,000 liters of UN-owned fuel supplied for humanitarian purposes. Even the U.S.-friendly Western think tank, Human Rights Watch, condemned the strike as a “possible war crime,” citing the scorched earth nature of the strikes that targeted civilian infrastructure. 

This recent round of strikes on the port, this time perpetrated directly by the U.S. and Britain, signals a dangerous escalation in the region and threatens to plunge Yemen back into a bloody civil war after an uneasy armistice has held for roughly five years. Further attacks on the port could also reintroduce famine conditions in Yemen and worsen the current cholera outbreak. 

The port at Al Hudaydah is a crucial supply point for Yemen and the entire Arabian peninsula. Regarding Yemen, 70% of the country’s food imports enter via the Al Hudaydah port. Further, the port is also the entry point for over 80% of all humanitarian aid that enters Yemen. 

The targeting of Al Hudaydah’s civilian port capacity is not a mistake. It is an intentional attempt to destabilize the legitimate Ansar Allah-led government of Yemen and to place the people of Yemen under siege conditions as they fight to end the genocide in Gaza. This is not the first time Western-backed forces have attempted to starve out Ansar Allah via the Al Hudaydah port.

In 2018, a U.S.-backed joint Saudi and UAE forces besieged the port city in the hopes of striking a fatal blow against the growing then-named “Houthi Movement.” That movement, now known as the Ansar Allah Yemen Government, led an uprising in 2014 against a Saudi puppet government that aimed to open the country to predatory Western monopolies. In 2014, the rebel forces captured the Yemeni capital city of Sanaa and established a new seat of government. 

Four years into a bloody war between Saudi Arabian proxy forces and Ansar Allah, the Saudi and Emirate forces decided to make a move against the new Yemeni government by attacking the Al Hudaydah port. This deadly move came after years of human rights abuses against the Yemeni people. To be clear, the United States, France, and Britain supplied weapons to the Saudi forces, who used those weapons to wage a terror campaign against Ansar Allah and the citizens of Yemen. 

U.S.-supplied Saudi forces began their attack on the Al Hudaydah port in June of 2018. The battle quickly intensified, engulfing the entire city and placing the port at the risk of total shutdown. The Saudi forces’ aim was the same as the U.S. forces today: to starve the people of Yemen and undermine Ansar Allah’s ability to govern Yemen. 

Like today, the strategy ultimately failed, but not before it launched Yemen into famine conditions, which the country is just now recovering from. Even with that recovery, the Famine Early Warning Signs Network still considers Yemen to be in a state of acute food insecurity. 

The intensity of the 2018 fighting around Al Hudaydah port, combined with the growing humanitarian crisis, was the spark that began a peace process in Yemen. The Stockholm Agreement, signed in December 2018, was the first of several ceasefire agreements that temporarily put the Saudi war on Yemen on hold. The Stockholm Ceasefire was not fully implemented until 2021 when Saudi and Emirati forces finally withdrew from the port region. 

Throughout this time, the United States never actually recognized the validity of the Stockholm Agreement. That said, the United States did not reject the ceasefire plan either, until possibly now. 

With its recent escalations against the Al Hudaydah port, specifically, the lifeline of Yemen, the United States threatens to launch the country back into civil war and famine, all while Yemen fights a cholera epidemic. In the week before the most recent strikes on the port, the U.S. signaled to Ansar Allah through back channels that it may formally reject the Stockholm Agreement and open the door for renewed Saudi and Emirati intervention. The U.S. would take this step to prevent Yemen from further assisting the resistance in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. 

The United States government and military often act as if they are peace brokers. Their actions prove quite the opposite. The true greatest threat to peace and stability in the Middle East is the United States itself. Its recent brutal escalations against the free people of Yemen are stone-cold proof of that.