Genocide Watch NGO adds Yemen and Ethiopia to list of top 10 conflicts to watch

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – US-based NGO Genocide Watch has placed Yemen and Ethiopia on a list published on January 1 of the top 10 conflicts to watch in 2023.

The poorest country in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, the western Asian Republic of Yemen, has been in the crushing throes of a civil war between the internationally recognized government and Houthi rebel separatists since 2016. The devastating war has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people in violent combat and has resulted in 17 million civilians being affected by famine.

Genocide Watch reports that, while Yemen is currently in a state of “limbo” amid a fragile UN-brokered truce, its warring sides are preparing to renew hostilities. “Major ground offensives and cross-border attacks have not resumed, and talks continue, mostly now through bilateral Saudi-Houthi channels. But tensions are rising. The Houthis have launched what they call warning shots at PLC-controlled oil and gas infrastructure, leading to a halt in oil exports…In retaliation, the government sought to halt fuel imports into the Houthi-controlled Red Sea port of Hodeidah.. Both sides are reportedly building up forces and military equipment around key front lines,” Genocide Watch said.

Not far from Yemen, Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa has been suffering through one of last year’s deadliest wars. Fighting broke out in 2020 between the separatist Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and army after the TPLF seized control of national military bases in the region. Genocide Watch reports that as of August 2022, an estimated 385,000 to 600,000 civilians had died as a result of the war: both sides have been accused of war crime atrocities, including sexual violence.

While the warring factions signed ceasefire agreements in November last year, Genocide Watch maintains the truce is tenuous. “Key questions remain unsettled, notably whether Tigray’s forces will disarm and whether Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, whose army has been fighting alongside Ethiopian troops, will withdraw his troops to the internationally recognized border,” Genocide Watch said.

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