Yemen ‘Collapsing Before Our Eyes,’ UN Secretary-General Warns

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that Yemen is “collapsing before our eyes,” in a call to “live up to our commitments under the U.N. charter.”

Given the resignation of Yemen’s president and prime minister in recent weeks and a takeover of the capital Sana’a by rebel Houthis, Ban said that “widespread and lethal” attacks by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and hostilities between that group and the Houthis were pushing the country toward the brink of civil war. “We must do everything possible to help Yemen step back from the brink and get the political process back on track,” Ban said.

“Either the country will descend into civil war and disintegration,” Ban warned, “or the country will find a way to put the transition back on track.” He argued that the outcome will be based on “the political will of Yemeni leaders.”

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