Uncatchable al-Bashir

South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress, said that the International Criminal Court was not “useful” to prosecute crimes against humanity because membership is voluntary. Really? It is hilarious.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan flew out of South Africa on Monday morning aboard his presidential jet. Mr. Bashir’s plane left a military airport near Pretoria, the capital, unhindered by the authorities who had already been ordered over the weekend by South Africa’s High Court to prevent him from departing.

Legal experts counter that the South African government has violated the 1998 Rome Treaty it signed to join the court. In addition, they say that the government has violated its laws because South Africa has incorporated the treaty’s principles into its own Constitution.

“The African Union has always been a presidential brotherhood; the members always look out after each other,” said John Akokpari, an expert on the African Union at the University of Cape Town. “Their rhetoric about respecting human rights and the rule of law has always been rhetorical diarrhea.”

Yemen: Defragmentation again?

Currently, Yemen is divided into three parts, controlled by:

- government forces of the president Hadi, supported by militarily strong Saudi Arabia and other Arab Nations

- rebels who allegedly received funding from Iran till 2013

- Al Qaeda.

The Saudi-led coalition accused Iran of militarily and financially supporting the rebel group of Houthis. But according to the AFP, a confidential report presented to the Security Council's Iran sanctions committee in April 2015 claimed that Iran has been shipping weapons to the Houthi rebels since between 2009 and 2013.[226] The panel further stated that there have been no reports of any weapon shipments since the 2013 incident. To be frank, I trust Saudi government not more than to Iranians.

US supports the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen by "providing intelligence sharing, targeting assistance, advisory and logistical support to the military intervention," according to the state department.[230] According to Anthony Cordesman, the US government does not want "the strategic Bab-el-Mandeb strait" to be threatened. However, the US is urging Saudi Arabia-led coalition to find a political solution to the conflict.

No surprise, the world is divided on Yemen conflict as well. The Arab League and the US voiced support for the intervention,[340][341][342] but the European Union and the United Nations criticised it.

In the meantime, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula exploited the chaos in Yemen to capture the south-eastern port city of Al Mukalla in early April. I wonder what is life like there now?
For me, globalization is barely seen or correctly understood in Yemen. Tribalism, not global values, is a king. Unethical practices are pervasive and bogging the country down the path of self-destruction. But the lack of global and regional leadership to stop the ongoing civil war is another dimension of the conflict.

How many people in the West know about Yemen, their culture and life? Why no infographics available on territorial changes in civil war?