Amazon Delivery Delays!- Molly N
Perhaps a lesser known conflict than Israel and Palestine but equally as important, is what’s happening in Yemen at the moment. For those of you who don’t know, Yemen is in the Middle East and some of its territory is rebel occupied.
But why is this relevant to us, it’s so far away and you may not have even heard of the country? The short answer, and what you may have been hearing in the news, is that commercial ships (some of which are travelling to England) are being attacked, causing longer delivery times and perhaps no delivery at all! But to understand why, it is a bit more complicated…
The Yemen civil war began in 2014 when the Houthi (rebels) took control of their capital city and overthrew the legitimate elected government. The Houthis declare themselves to be part of the Iranian-led ‘axis of resistance’ against Israel, the US and the wider West. In 2015, a coalition of Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia put in place economic isolation and air strikes against the Houthi. During the civil war, the Houthis fired missiles in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and inside Yemen, and they are backed by Iran which has allegedly been supplying them with weapons and training. Further fighting followed, causing Yemen to become the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The US has also carried out nearly 400 strikes in Yemen and have supplied weapons and information to Saudi troops. However, their strikes were also used to target al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
More recently, the war in the Gaza strip has escalated things. The Houthis declared their support for what they called “their brothers in Gaza” and started firing drones and missiles towards Israel. In late 2023, they hijacked an Israeli commercial ship in the Red Sea and have since attacked more than 20 other ships.
The attacks on commercial ships is what has being surfacing on the news, and is perhaps what is most relevant to us (people living in Britain) at the moment. This has caused major shipping companies to stop using the Red Sea, and are using a much longer route around southern Africa instead (this may explain why your Amazon parcel is taking so long to arrive!). The attacks on ships has also caused the UK to get more involved, as they carried out air strikes in early January 2024.
While things seem to be only getting worse, Saudi Arabia is now trying to make a peace deal with the Houthis and a UN-brokered truce has been in effect since April 2022. So don’t worry, your Amazon parcel will get here soon!
Post Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.