An Overview of the Mess in Yemen

The Humanitarian Information Unit of the US State Department has just released a fantastic set of maps showing the scope of demographic displacement and related issues in Yemen:

The humanitarian crisis in Yemen continues to deteriorate with an estimated 21.1 million people, 80% of the population, in need of assistance. The UN revised its funding appeal in June 2015 upwards to $1.6 billion to target 11.7 million people. Regardless of funding, there is limited capacity to handle the collapsing food and health sectors and deteriorating water and sanitation systems.

As they note, the thousands fleeing Yemen have been largely absorbed by neighbors, especially Djibouti and Somalia. Neither country is necessarily in a position to afford this for long, but international help has been slow in coming, particularly in light of all the other problems in the region. While correlation is not necessarily causation, the US invasion of Iraq, followed by the Arab Spring--both in the context of rapidly growing youthful populations--probably lit the fuse that has led us to this state of affairs.