Al-Bukhaiti says had the Sudanese army commanders not been involved in the war on Yemen, this wouldn’t have happened in Sudan.
Member of the political bureau of the Ansar Allah movement Mohammad Al-Bukhaiti
Member of the political bureau of the Ansar Allah movement, Mohammad Al-Bukhaiti, considered on Monday that the Sudan crisis is an extension of the Yemeni crisis.
In an interview for Al Mayadeen, Al-Bukhaiti pointed out that “had the army commanders not been involved in the war on Yemen, this wouldn’t have happened in Sudan, especially since those fighting in Sudan now were involved in fighting in Yemen before.”
Al-Bukhaiti to #AlMayadeen, "The conflict in Sudan is an extension of the crisis in #Yemen, had the army commanders not been involved in the war on Yemen, this wouldn't have happened in Sudan, especially since those fighting in #Sudan now were involved in fighting in Yemen… https://t.co/YawuaxkzLB
Al-Bukhaiti regretted the inability of the Sanaa government to provide aid to the Yemenis in Sudan due to the aggression, the blockade, and the situation forced onto the Sanaa government.
He also highlighted the Sudanese government’s relationship with the forces of aggression and not with the Sanaa government.
The Yemeni official indicated that recent visits of the Saudi delegation to Sanaa “broke many barriers that constituted an obstacle to any negotiations,” explaining that many achievements have been made, yet without reaching an agreement on a complete and comprehensive peace.
According to Al-Bukhaiti, many matters were agreed upon with the Saudi delegation, especially with regard to the humanitarian situation.
He said that Sanaa is waiting for the implementation of what was agreed upon, warning against procrastination, because the situation of the Yemeni people no longer allows any delay in the implementation of the agreed points.
Member of the Ansar Allah political bureau, Mohammad Al-Bukhaiti, to #AlMayadeen, "There are a lot of terms we agreed on with the #Saudi delegation, especially those pertaining to the humanitarian crisis. We are waiting for the delegation to fulfill the agreement, and we warn… https://t.co/6FnbQvXfUs
He also noted that the negotiations with the Saudis were halted due to the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, affirming that these negotiations “will be resumed soon.”
Al-Bukhaiti mentioned that Sanaa and Riyadh are now in a stage of de-escalation, but he affirmed that Saudi Arabia and the UAE realize that any escalation will be met with escalation, and this will not be in their interest.
The Ansar Allah official specified that “negotiations with the Saudis at this stage are based on re-opening the airports and ports, set to be finalized in later stages to achieve a permanent and comprehensive peace.”
Al-Bukhaiti considered that the Yemeni internal dialogue should include all Yemeni political components and figures that have popular bases, noting that the individuals and militias directly linked to Saudi Arabia and the UAE will attempt to obstruct reaching any solution, which, if reached, will cause them to lose their jobs with whoever hired them.
Al-Bukhaiti revealed to Al Mayadeen that during the negotiations, emphasis was placed on the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Yemen and on Yemen’s restoration of its sovereignty over all of its lands.
“Peace means the exit of the American forces from the occupied Yemeni provinces… We do not accept any foreign presence in Yemen, and we will be in direct confrontation with any foreign military forces present on Yemeni soil,” he underlined.
Al-Bukhaiti warned that the United States does not want peace in Yemen, adding that Washington had a negative impact on the negotiations between Sanaa and Riyadh.
It is noteworthy that this month, Yemen witnessed three batches of prisoner exchange deals. Earlier, the Sanaa government revealed arrangements to hold a new round of negotiations to discuss the release of 1,400 Yemeni prisoners with the Saudi-backed government in May.
The government said a future deal that included 700 prisoners will be concluded.
For the past seven years, Yemen has been enduring an aggression by the Saudi-led coalition that butchers civilians on a daily basis, destroys civilian infrastructure and residential areas, and starves innocent Yemenis – all amid international silence and complicity. It is time for this war to end… Yemen can’t wait any longer…
American. French. Sudanese. German. Colombian. Yemeni. Eritrean. You name it.
Mercenaries in Yemen are a significant factor in what prolonged the war.
It’s the twenty-first century. Corporates have armies. With as little as a few ID papers and almost no governmental regulation, you can take up state-of-the-art arms and be sent to a war that’s not your war, not your battle, and kill people whose names you can barely pronounce. The trade offer? You receive some $10,000 a week. That’s $40,000 a month. That’s more than 30x the American minimum wage for some honest work. You need not read some Veronica Roth, because we’re already living in a dystopian novel.
Let’s address the word “mercenaries.” In the very far away bureaucratic world of secret operations where sharp terms are smoothed down (recalling comedian George Carlin’s usage of post-traumatic stress disorder as a euphemism for shell-shock!), “mercenaries” is a taboo word. Instead, they’re called special forces to drive people away from the clandestine, underground nature of foreign soldier recruitment. An ancient ‘job’ dormant since the Middle Ages, the United States revived the mercenary industry with Bush’s War on Terror, and continued the venture into the UAE and Saudi-led war on Yemen, and now in Ukraine.
Putting Saudi Arabia aside for now – UAE is the perfect orbit state for Washington. With a population of only 1 million with a total of 9 million expatriates, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan does not want to risk it all for a wealthy population that can barely manage a home without housemaids – the UAE is largely operated by foreigners rather than locals. So how was the UAE going to fight this war? An army operated by foreigners – namely US lieutenants and colonels and allies.
But why mercenaries? One reason is numbers. There was no way MBZ was going to send soldiers from his local population of 1 million to war. A foreign population, however, is cost-effective, could be bought in abundance, and will guarantee to prolong the war – especially if major terrorists like ISIS are on the ground.
Another reason is accountability. Because mercenaries operate outside the scope of direct military command – or, at least that’s what we know – Abu Dhabi benefits from zero accountability. Mercenaries can kill, maim and commit other war crimes with no investigation from a legitimate governmental body. They’re bought and sold like a commodity, where corporates, on the long run, can transform into superpowers like states in the new world.
A third reason would be, as an ex-Navy SEAL – Erik Prince – once said: Muslim soldiers could not be counted on to kill fellow Muslims. Sending Muslim soldiers, Emirati or Saudi, to kill Yemenis will bear a conflict of interest.
The Yemeni armed forces and the Popular Committees in Yemen can testify to witnessing American, Australian, Sudanese, Colombian, Eritrean, and even Yemeni mercenaries, working for Gulf and US interests in Yemen. Some were recruited out of ignorance and poverty, others were recruited out of coercion and deception, and many bear arms for major cash.
Kingfish
Erik Prince is a former US Navy SEAL who was behind the revival of the private security industry.
He also calls himself ‘Kingfish.’
Notoriously known for Blackwater and his involvement in the Iraq War, he established another private military company called Reflex Responses – or R2 – after he sold Blackwater to investors as an escape from controversy. The UAE secretly hired both companies, Blackwater and R2, to go to Yemen.
Blackwater, which has massacred scores of Iraqis and is despised in Iraq more than the US soldiers themselves, has taken pride in employing Colombians and other Latin American military personnel, from soldiers to commanders.
But, why did MBZ’s private army, a project originally launched by Blackwater, consist mostly of Colombians?
As Professor of Strategy at the National Defense University Sean McFate put it, think of the private military industry as the t-shirt industry. In America, it costs 20$ to make, but in Bangladesh, it costs 1$ to make.
Colombian mercenaries are not only cheap, but they are also trained by Washington and are more violent and rigorous than others given they are hardened by guerrilla warfare in Latin America.
The UAE hired 1,800 Colombians on the ground and tripled and quadrupled their salaries.
“They’re pretty tough warriors in my experience,” McFate said. “They obey chain of command, and they have American training.
“When you take them out of Latin America and put them in the Middle East, they have no sort of political affiliation to any Middle Eastern action or country, so they’re just truly loyal to their paymaster. So they got a lot of Latin American ex-special soldiers in Abu Dhabi. Then, as the Emirates went to war with Saudi Arabia in Yemen, that’s when the Emirates deployed these mercenaries into Yemen to kill Houthis. And they did. And now we have mercenary warfare in Yemen almost like it’s the Middle Ages again.”
Under the guise of construction workers, Colombian mercenaries became part of an American mercenary army, led by Erik Prince, who scored a $529 million budget from the UAE to create a monster.
“That is to me a pretty crazy part of the evolution of the mercenary business model that was taken from Erik Prince developing it in the US then exporting it to Abu Dhabi – then, all of the sudden, there are Colombians dying in Yemen. It’s hard to track,” said McFate.
Spear: A Delaware-based firm with an Israeli touch
“Give me your best man and I’ll beat him. Anyone,” said Abraham Golan, the Israeli-Hungarian owner of Spear Operations Group that has also operated in Yemen to commit targeted assassinations.
Golan was able to convince, over spaghetti and maybe some wine, the security advisor to MBZ that hiring his security company would be more effective than his own army – and, it worked.
On December 29, 2015, a group of mercenaries from the Delaware-based military firm planted a bomb in the Islah political party headquarters in Aden, Yemen. Escorted by UAE military vehicles front and back, one of Golan’s mercenaries, Isaac Gilmore (also an ex-Navy SEAL and Delta Force veteran), jumps from the vehicle, fires bullets at civilians around the block, as his comrade rushes to plant the explosive device just under the building. With an Emirati soldier behind the wheel, the SUV zooms off as soon as the deed is done.
Assassination targets handed out to Spears Group Operations’ mercenaries who were sent to operate in Yemen. (BuzzFeed News)
The group that Golan and Gilmore pieced together was a 12-man army, mostly consisting of former French legion officers and ex-US soldiers. The French officers were paid half of what Golan intended to pay – around $10,000 a month – which was even less than half of their American counterparts, a testimony to the commodification of military personnel and ‘market’ value.
The assassination plot to kill Anssaf Ali Mayo, a leader of the conservative Islah party in Yemen, was plotted out over spaghetti at a UAE military base with MBZ’s security advisor and ex-Fatah member, Mohammed Dahlan.
Dahlan fell from grace when he was accused of collaborating with the CIA and “Israel” – and that’s exactly what he did as he sat with Gilmore and Golan. The MBZ security advisor has his hands in a lot of political mess.
A report by Al-Khaleej Online in 2018 exposes Dahlan’s complicity in holding secret training camps in occupied Palestine.
The secret training camps, which held hundreds of Nepalese and Colombian mercenaries, were situated in the Naqab desert in occupied Palestine, where the geological nature of the region looks synonymous with that of Yemen.
Dahlan personally supervised the training and made regular visits and check-ups.
“Mohammed Dahlan visited these camps on more than one occasion to be informed,” sources revealed to Al-Khaleej Online. Dahlan was filled in on the progress of the preparations, in addition to the mercenaries’ training.
And by the way, the Aden operation failed.
The price of Washington lip service? The blood of young Sudanese men
There were two ways through which young Sudanese – even minors under 18 – got recruited to Yemen. By force and deception, and by Omar Al Bashir’s thirst for power.
Estimates and reports suggest that up to 15,000 Sudanese mercenaries were fighting in Yemen.
By force and deception: Many Sudanese became victims of forced conscription into becoming mercenaries for a private US firm, Black Shield Security Services.
Responding to online job posts as “security guards,” the UAE-based company would trick the job applicants into signing the contract, only to the surprise of the young men that, all of the sudden, they’re redirected to a military training camp in the UAE to be sent off to either Libya or Yemen. They were offered ‘large’ sums of money, more than they can ever get in an average job in their country which has been experiencing an ongoing political crisis.
The contracts signed by young Sudanese men, which had an e-Visa to enter the UAE from Khartoum attached to it, had “profession: Security Guard” written on them.
تأشيرة دخول لأحد الضحايا تابعة لشركة بلاك شيلد #الاماراتيه تقوم باستخراج عقود للسودانيين للعمل في الإمارات كحراس وبحسب معلومات نشرت في وسائط أخرى فإن السودانيين عند وصولهم يتم إرسالهم إلى معسكر الغياثي وسحب هواتفهم وإعلامهم بأنهم سيقومون بتأمين #منشات في ليبيا أو اليمن.#واكبpic.twitter.com/JPPMw66qqi
Up to 15,000 Sudanese mercenaries were reportedly deployed in Yemen, who, according to the current Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, were reduced to 5,000. Many of them were children.
Official recruitment is also the culprit. Omar Al Bashir, Sudan’s old ruler, whose throne was strangled by sanctions and international pressures, sold his pro-Iran alliance for financial help from the Gulf – which meant sending thousands of Sudanese men and children to kill in Yemen.
To go through with the recruitment, a private company – Rapid Support Forces – or the Janjaweed, a die-hard Bashir-backing militia, scored major bags with Saudi and Emirati officials. Both groups face allegations of systematic rape, indiscriminate murder and other war crimes from the Darfur war in which 300,000 people were killed.
Arriving by the thousands from Sudan to Saudi Arabia, the Sudanese mercenaries were handed US-made weapons and uniforms. Then, they were taken to Al-Hudaydah, Taiz and Aden. Paid in Saudi riyals, 14-year-old amateurs were paid some $480 a month, while experienced officers from the Janjaweed were paid $530 a month – both cheaper than any other mercenary, including Colombians.
The RSF profited $350 million from its role in Yemen.
Ahmed, who was 25-years-old at the time when he was sent to Al-Hudaydah, commented on this experience: “The Saudis would give us a phone call and then pull back.
“They treat the Sudanese like their firewood,” he told the New York Times.
Other than Sudan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have also been paying Eritrea to provide troops and assistance. In 2015, the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea revealed that Riyadh and Abu Dhabi signed a deal with Eritrea which allowed the coalition to use Eritrean military bases to attack Yemen. Chad isn’t left from the equation either: RSF mercenaries include hundreds of Chadian men, whose alignment lies with Bashir, hence maintaining an interest to keep him in power.
#Yemen Ansar Allah shares photos, names and ranks of 12 soldiers (10 #SaudiArabia & 2 #Sudan) captured during the last successful attack on Jizan that Saudi denied.
The aim is to exchange Yemeni prisoners with occupiers and mercenaries fighting in Yemen since 2015. pic.twitter.com/7BTDcR0XIV
There are also some 1,000 Pakistani mercenaries fighting in Yemen, despite a majority no-vote in Islamabad’s parliament.
Yemenis fighting Yemenis
As poverty, war and uncertainty brought millions of Yemenis to prolonged angst, many contemplated turning their back on their own kind.
For around $1,200 a month, Yemenis were compelled to join the Al-Fateh brigade, a mercenary-militia based in Najran, Saudi Arabia, which was formed in 2016. The brigade is an all-Yemeni mercenary hub.
The Saudis recruited over 1,000 mercenaries to the Saudi-Yemen border to defend it.
In a report by the Middle East Eye, one mercenary that goes by the name Anees narrates that some thousand Yemenis were forced to advance towards Jabara valley in Saada province, Yemen, knowing that the valley is under control of the Yemeni armed forces, and that they were positioned just behind them in Najran.
The leaders of Al-Fateh forced the mercenaries to move forward, assuring that Salafi fighters would follow and protect them.
He narrates, “Suddenly, the Houthis started to attack us from the mountains. We tried to withdraw but there were no Salafi fighters backing us up and only the Houthis besieging us from all directions.”
The Yemenis were besieged for four days, abandoned by both the Saudis and the Salafis.
“We were about to die from hunger. We had run out of food. The Saudis and the Salafis did not break the siege on us, so we fought and pushed towards Najran and only few were escaped including me,” Anees said.
Bundeswehr
Last year, former German soldiers and police officers lodged in an offering to Saudi Arabia to form a group of mercenaries – or, according to German prosecutors, a terrorist organisation – to be sent to Yemen.
Two Bundeswehr soldiers were charged with terrorism by state prosecutors for conspiring to recruit 150 men and former soldiers from the Bundeswehr armed forces. The mercenaries were to be paid $46,400 a month to conduct operations in the Arabian peninsula.
The goal of the mercenary force to be formed was to capture land held by the Yemeni Armed Forces – however, it does not stop there. The mercenary force was also to be sent to other protracted conflicts around the world, with the two convicted terrorists in full conscious awareness that the fighters will have to commit murder and kill civilians to achieve strategic goals.
The future
If the Saudi and Emirati armies were to fight and bleed, the war would not have lasted long with a population of 30 million willing to resist barefoot. Mercenaries played a significant role in the war on Yemen by sustaining the violence on the ground, continuously causing grief.
Many experts would say that the future of warfare is private. The effectiveness of state armies is diminishing, while private firms have proven to get more tasks done – however bloody and sinister.
As corporations overshadow governmental authority, warlords and investors will be more keen on keeping ‘security firms’ going in so-called “conflict zones in the Middle East,” where the flow of weapons and the funding for violence come from Western neoliberal democracies.
While the use of mercenaries was dishonorable in recent times, the West has been promoting its use. As the foreign fighters are used to carry out targeted assassinations and other forms of murder, states and governmental bodies take in less and less responsibility and accountability for the humanitarian disaster that comes with the recruitment.
A UN Mercenary Convention in 2001 forbids the recruitment of mercenaries in conflict: Only 36 countries supported the convention. Some of the countries that did not ratify it are the United States, the United Kingdom, China, France, India, Japan and Russia.
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The Yemeni Military Media released on Thursday scenes of a major offensive against Saudi mercenaries on the outskirts of Al-Doud Mountain close to the kingdom’s southwestern region of Jizan.
The Army and the Popular Committees carried out a military operation against Saudi-backed militants, mercenaries from Sudan, deployed in the axes of Al-Madafin and Al-Mlahidh, which culminated in the control of several sites, killing, wounding and capturing Saudi-paid Sudanese mercenaries.
The Army and the Popular Committees conducted the offensive on two fronts, and they managed to establish control over a number of districts and inflict material and human losses on enemy forces in the process.
They destroyed four vehicles belonging to Saudi-backed militants, burned their camps and barricades, seized various weapons, and captured a number of Sudanese mercenaries.
The scenes documented by the military media lens also showed the moments of the Yemeni Army advancing to enemy positions and storming them.
The scenes also showed the Army and Popular Committees chasing the fleeing Sudanese mercenaries between valleys and hills, capturing a number of them.
In conjunction with the implementation of the operation, the US-Saudi aggression aircraft tried to support its mercenaries with a number of raids to stop the progress of the Army and Popular Committees, but to no avail.
الجيش اليمني ينفذ عملية هجومية واسعة في محور “الخوبة – وادي جارة” بقطاع جيزان من 3 مسارات رئيسية على مواقع الجيش السعودي، ومصدر عسكري يكشف عن تحرير أكثر من 150 كيلو متراً مربعاً في محور جيزان.
الجيش اليمني يعلن تحرير عشرات المواقع على محور جيزان
نفّذ الجيش واللجان الشعبية عملية هجومية واسعة في محور “الخوبة – وادي جارة” بقطاع جيزان من 3 مسارات رئيسية على مواقع الجيش السعودي في “جبل الإم بي سي – وتباب الفخيذة والتبة البيضاء – والقمبورة والعمود وتويلق وشرق قايم صياب” وتم خلال العملية التقدم والسيطرة عليها بالكامل وإلحاق خسائر فادحة بقوات العدو.
مصدر عسكري يمني كشف عن تحرير أكثر من 150 كيلو متراً مربعاً في محور جيزان بعملية عسكرية واسعة.
وبدأت العملية عقب رصد دقيق لتحركات الجيش السعودي وتموضّع قواته وآلياته، إذ تواجدت في هذه المواقع قوات مشتركة من القوات السعودية ومرتزقة سودانيين ووحدات من مرتزقة ما يسمى بـ “لواء المغاوير”.
وأظهرت المشاهد تقدّم الجيش واللجان الشعبية نحو مواقع العدو في مدينة قبالة الخوبة في العمق السعودي، وتمكنهم من اجتياز الموانع والتحصينات المعادية قبل الإطباق والاشتباك مع قوات العدو من مسافات قريبة وإلحاق خسائر فادحة بالعدو أجبرته على الفرار.
كما أوضحت المشاهد الموثقة قنص أعداد من قوات العدو وتدمير تحصيناتهم ومواقعهم، مبينةً حالة من الهلع والإرباك الكبير في صفوف قواتهم وسط الضربات المنكلة.
وتمكّن الجيش من تكبيد العدو خسائر فادحة في الأرواح والعتاد، وسقوط عشرات القتلى والجرحى من الجيش السعودي والسوداني ومرتزقتهم، وإحراق وتدمير العشرات من المدرعات والآليات بالقداحات (الولاعات) والعيارات النارية وضربات مسددة.
وبيّنت المشاهد سقوط أعداد من ضباط وجنود الجيش السعودي قتلى وجرحى في كمائن محكمة استهدفت مدرعات حاولت الهروب وتعزيزات أخرى للعدو، ومصرع آخرين تساقطوا أثناء محاولتهم الفرار من منحدرات وعرة في حالة عكست الرعب والهلع الكبير دبَّ في أوساطهم.
هذا وأظهرت المشاهد أسر العشرات من قوات العدو بينهم سعوديون وسودانيون، وأعداد كبيرة من الجثث المتناثرة في الشعاب والوديان تركها من تبقى ولاذ بالفرار.
ووثقّت المشاهد اغتنام المجاهدين كميات كبيرة من الأسلحة والذخائر المتنوعة تركتها قوات العدو في المواقع والمخازن التابع لها.
وانتهت العملية بالسيطرة على جميع المواقع المذكورة والتنكيل بالعدو وتكبيده خسائر فادحة، ومصرع وجرح وأسر ا العشرات منهم رغم مشاركة الطيران الحربي والعمودي المعادي، والذي فشل في إيقاف تقدم المجاهدين.
خريطة وزعها الإعلام الحربي اليمني للمواقع التي سيطر عليها الجيش واللجان الشعبية
وفي وقت سابق من اليوم، أعلنت القوات المسلحة اليمنية، عن تنفيذ عملية هجومية استهدفت قاعدة خالد الجوية بخميس مشيط السعودية بطائرتين مسيرتين.
من جهته، أكّد عضو المجلس السياسي الأعلى في اليمن محمد علي الحوثي في حديث للميادين إنه “ما لم يتحقق السلام ستستمر عملياتنا في العمق وسيكون الرد أقسى مما هو حاصل”.
وتوجه الحوثي للسعودية محذراً: “نحذرهم من
الوجع الكبير والمعادلة اليوم لم تدخل في كل أبعادها مرحلة الوجع الكبير”.
On April 16, the Houthis (as Ansar Allah is known) released a video of a recent attack by their fighters on Sudanese forces in the northwestern Yemeni province of Hajjah.
The 18-minute video shows Houthi fighters attacking the Sudanese Armed Forces west of Harad. The Houthis storm a network of forward positions, mortar posts as well as a small village that was occupied by Sudanese soldiers.
The Houthis bold attack forced Sudanese troops to withdrew from their positions without showing any real resistance. Houthi fighter used assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades only.
During the attack, several Sudanese soldiers were killed. The Houthis also captured loads of weapons including heavy machine guns, automatic grenade launchers, mortars, recoilless rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
The Sudanese military is the second biggest contributor to the Saudi-led coalition after the Saudi military itself. Earlier this year, the Houthis revealed that 4,416 Sudanese service members have been killed in Yemen, so far.
Despite the heavy losses and the 2011 Sudanese coup d’état, Khartoum is yet to leave the Saudi-led coalition. In 2019, a plan to withdrew 10,000 Sudanese troops from Yemen was announced. However, the withdrawal has never happened.
Six years of the Saudi-led war have passed in Yemen, and it keeps going with no sign of a peaceful solution on the horizon.
The “occasion” was “commemorated” with a briefing by Ansar Allah, or as they are popularly known – the Houthis. Some impressive numbers were shared.
Houthi spokesperson Yahya Sari said that the Saudi-led coalition carried out more than 266,150 airstrikes throughout these 6 years. The predominant number of those strikes targeted Yemeni citizens, homes, cities and other infrastructure.
On the side of the Houthis, at least 1,348 separate missile operations were launched, with nearly 500 being behind enemy lines on key military facilities of the Kingdom and the UAE. In total, the Houthi Air Force carried out 12,623 raids with drones. In 2021 alone, Ansar Allah has carried out 1,464 operations, including 124 attack operations, and the rest reconnaissance.
The Ansar Allah ground forces carried out 12,366 combat operations throughout the years. When it comes to losses, the Houthis didn’t share theirs. They claimed that over the 6 years, the Saudi-led coalition had suffered some significant losses. In total, more than 240,000 fighters were either killed or injured.
This includes UAE forces, Sudanese mercenaries, Saudi armed forces, as well as the troops of the Yemen puppet government.
As expected, the update focuses more on what the Houthis achieved and what Saudi Arabia has lost, but it has been an open secret that Riyadh’s intervention in Yemen hasn’t been a glowing example of success.
In just the past few days, leading up to March 22nd, the Houthis carried out a significant attack on Aramco oil facilities. A refinery was struck by 6 suicide drones. The Saudi Ministry of Energy claimed that the attack caused a fire that was “quickly” controlled by the refinery’s staff. Satellite imagery, however, showed the damage to be much more extensive than Riyadh let on.
Saudi Arabia, on its part, released footage of its airstrikes on Ansar Allah in the Marib province. The videos presented 17 pinpoint airstrikes by Riyadh warplanes on vehicles and positions on several fronts of the province. The Saudi-led coalition also released a video showing precision airstrikes on a cave supposedly used by the Houthis to store suicide drones. It is purportedly located near Yemen’s capital Sana’a.
In spite of these videos, and the Saudi attempt to present the situation in a somewhat positive light, the Saudi-led coalition has been slowly retreating in Marib.
Six years of war have passed in Yemen, in which massive amounts of funds were “invested” by Riyadh to fight a war that it still can’t even go near winning.
The Yemeni army spokesman General Yehya Sarea announced that the around 8000 Sudanese mercenaries were killed or injured since the beginning of the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen, adding that 2000 of them were claimed during the past month.
General Sarea displayed during his press conference testimonies of some of the Sudanese kidnapped by the Yemeni forces, stressing that Sudan’s participation in the aggression imposed on Yemen to take counter measures.
In this context, media reports noted that the Sudanese officials are mulling a decision to withdraw 10000 of the troops in Yemen due to the augmenting losses inflicted upon them there.
The Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman, Brigadier Yahya Sare’e, revealed the toll of killed Sudanese mercenaries involved in the aggression on Yemen, stressing that it exceeds 8,000 killed and injured.
Brigadier Saree said in a televised statement on Saturday that the Sudanese killed in the south, Taiz and the west coast, until last month, in all fronts reached 4253 soldiers. He pointed out that in 2015 and 2016 the number killed reached 850.
He pointed out at the press conference, in which he presented testimonies of Sudanese prisoners and pictures of bodies left in the deserts, and during the past two years recorded crimes and violations committed by Sudanese mercenaries amounted to rape, stressing that the inclusion of children in the fighting among the crimes and violations committed by the leadership of mercenaries of the udanese army.
Brigadier Yahya Sare’e said that the aggression alliance depends on the Sudanese army mercenaries and does not deal with them like mercenaries working in foreign security companies, pointing out that all prisoners of the Sudanese army were treated with all humane in accordance with religion and ethics.
He considered that the continued participation of Sudan in the aggression on Yemen serves only the agendas of the Authority and the coalition of aggression. He pointed out that there are Sudanese brigades stationed on the fronts under the supervision of Saudi Arabia and others in the south and west coast under the supervision of the UAE.
He pledged that “the continued participation of Sudan in the aggression on Yemen will make our forces take serious steps to force them to leave.”
“The Sudanese forces inside Yemen are legitimate targets and any other formations that support the aggression coalition no matter where they are,” he said. Brigadier-General Saree said that the Sudanese people have been subjected to a campaign of media misinformation like other peoples of the region to withhold facts.
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