From Hope To Hunger: Yemen's Forgotten Uprising

Dubai, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jan, 2021 ) :Death, destruction and starvation have obliterated the aspirations that propelled a 2011 uprising in Yemen, with the hopes of the country crushed by war and the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

As the Arab Spring gripped the region, thousands of Yemenis took to the streets of the capital Sanaa on January 27 that year, demanding president Ali Abdullah Saleh step down, while loyalists staged their own counter-protests.

Shockwaves from the popular movements shaking Tunisia and Egypt were quick to reach Yemen, long the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country and surrounded by the rich Gulf monarchies.

"The people want the fall of the regime," the protesters chanted, eager to shrug off Saleh's iron-fisted rule.

Saleh had likened governing Yemen to "dancing on the heads of snakes", but nonetheless had remained in power since 1978, while resentments smouldered.

"For 50 years there had been political under-representation, social inequality, poverty, corruption, and identity struggles," said Maged Al-Madhaji, a witness to the uprising and now director of the Sanaa Centre for Strategic Studies.

In the beginning, the demonstrations were peaceful and spontaneous, said activist Yasser al-Raini, who at the time was a coordinator of youth groups.

"The revolution brought together all sections of society to combat tyranny and injustice, and to build a new Yemen in the spirit of partnership and without excluding anyone," he told AFP.

In a country where there are enough guns for everyone to have their own, the movement, Raini said, remained peaceful until Saleh's forces opened fire on protestors in March.