SANAA, 15 May (Saba) -Military options have failed miserably and devastated the whole nation – there can only be political solutions.

This requires consultations with all the various local factions and external actors – ultimately, all the parties will need to agree on a framework for drawing up a clear and precise roadmap to peace. Multiple factions are entangled in Yemen’s war: pro-government forces led by the president, Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, are backed by a Saudi-led regional coalition and their mercenaries.

The infighting and the Saudi-led military intervention has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths, with estimates varying from 10,000 at very least, to 60,000. It has got so bad that children are dying from malnutrition and disease – according to UN, a child dies every 10 minutes because of lack of basic medical attention.

The Saudi-led coalition, which controls Yemen’s airspace, has enforced an almost complete media blackout by preventing reporters and human-rights researchers from taking U.N. relief flights into Houthi-controlled areas for much of the last three years.

Hisham Al-Omeisy is a political and information analyst from Yemen

The root causes lie in the failure of the Yemeni government to address and resolve mounting challenges arising from political marginalization, economic disenfranchisement, state mismanagement and the effects of an extractive, corrupt state with weak institutions.

These accumulative and systematic failures since the 1960s – compounded by cycles of violence, political upheaval and lack of institutional capacities – finally erupted in the war we see today, ceasefires and political agreements between only the two main factions have failed to take hold for a lack of comprehensiveness and wider buy-in from all those involved in the war.

The UN-led peace process has so far produced little in terms of a tangible roadmap to a resolution or significant results, there have been theories and arguments criticizing the process, but it seems the problems crippling progress revolve around a failure to fully understand the complex nature of the conflict – and choosing overly simplistic approaches.

The UN approach so far has been all too cosmetic, without taking into consideration the role of external actors in the conflict, such as Saudi Arabiaand America.

Initiatives to stop the war that are not holistic and don’t address the root causes are not only short-term but are also becoming part of the problem, with valuable time and resources wasted on futile endeavors that only serve to prolong the conflict.

An understanding of the Yemen problem is not only pertinent but of paramount importance to the design and proposition of solid solutions, the peace process is desperately in need of recalibration.

Written by Mona Zaid