Sectarian violence in Yemen’s Arab Spring
Yemen’s massive uprisings, inspired by the toppling of Bin Ali of Tunisia and Mubarak of Egypt, were not merely a “rebellion of the belly.” Instead, they were expressions of an overlapping set of factors, including acute sociopolitical frustrations among the youth, a power struggle among the elite, broader disenfranchisement among the citizenry, and unresolved security grievances. The uprisings reignited all of Yemen’s existing tribal, ideological, and political conflicts. One of these in par¬ticular, the Houthi rebellion, has taken a worrisome turn.