Demotix/Luke Somers. All rights reserved.In Yemen, only ruins are left of the revolutionary process which raised such enthusiasm in 2011. Political and sectarian polarisation have been the outcomes of the military campaign launched by Saudi Arabia against the Houthi militias in March 2015, in addition to humanitarian disaster and a military and strategic failure.
Polarisation is wiping out all independent or dissenting voices. Yemeni intellectuals are constantly at risk of acts of violent intimidation, arrest or assassination—another element fuelling radicalisation.
On 2 January 2016 in Sana’a, Nabil Subay, a Yemeni journalist, heads for lunch with friends. Unidentified gunmen attack him on a busy street: they beat him violently about the head and shoot him in both legs. He is taken to hospital and operated on. One of his colleagues, Muhammad Aysh, immediately places responsibility on the Houthis, given that the city is under their control; they allowed this aggression to happen and let the perpetrators escape. No one claims the assault, a familiar pattern for such acts for decades.
