Abdallah Salih

Yemen's complex reality

The war in Saada is perhaps the most misunderstood conflict in the world. And the reason is the very complex tribal, religious and political make up of Yemen.

For centuries, Yemen had been shattered into a mosaic of kingdoms or sultanates - a Shia Zaidi Imamate in the north and Sunni Sultanates in the south. That order was upset in 1962, in a coup that put an end to the rule of Hamid Eddine, a Hashemite family that had ruled Northern Yemen since 1918.

In 1967, a radical Marxist movement created a Soviet-inspired state in the south. In 1990, the north and south united under Ali Abdallah Salih, a Shia Zaidi who has been ruling Yemen since 1978.

The Houthi rebellion started in 2004 when a member of a Hashemite family - the Houthis - took up arms against the government seeking more religious and cultural freedoms.