UN Human Rights Chief: Yemen at Risk of ’Balkanization’
Local Editor
UN human-rights chief Prince Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein warned the Security Council on Tuesday that the state of Yemen faces permanent fragmentation if the conflict has not ended soon, just two days after UN-sponsored peace talks between warring parties broke down over cease-fire violations.
According to a UN statement, Zeid told the 15-member body that failure to secure peace "would inevitably push the country into an irreversible process of Balkanization, the consequences of which would lie outside of anyone’s control."
"A failed state in Yemen would almost inevitably create safe havens for radical ... groups such as the so-called "ISIS"."
The conflict in Yemen pits the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition with the support of the US, against the Yemeni army, the Ansarullah revolutionaries and the popular committees.
According to UN statistics, fighting in the nine-month war has killed 2,700 civilians, displaced 2.5 million people internally and left 21 million in need of humanitarian aid.
