Yemen is a country on the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. The Gulf of Aden is south of Yemen, and the Red Sea lies to the west. Saudi Arabia lies to the north and Oman to the east. Most of the people of Yemen are Arab Muslims.
Sanaa is Yemen’s capital and largest city. Aden is its most important port. Although most of Yemen is hot and dry, there are many fertile areas that support farming. The mountainous interior of northwestern Yemen is the most densely populated and highly cultivated part of the Arabian Peninsula.
In 1990, two countries—the Yemen Arab Republic, also called North Yemen, and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, or South Yemen—merged to form the Republic of Yemen (ROY). Today, the ROY is commonly referred to as Yemen.
Government
National government.
The executive branch of Yemen’s government is an eight-member Presidential Council. The council is led by a chairperson. Parliament consists of a House of Representatives and a Shura Council. The people elect the 301 members of the House of Representatives to six-year terms. The Presidential Council has the power to appoint the 111 members of the Shura Council.
Local government.
Yemen has 21 provinces. In addition, the capital, Sanaa, forms a separate administrative area. The provinces have smaller divisions called districts. Members of both the provincial and district councils are elected by the people.
People
Most of Yemen’s people are Arabs, and most are Muslims of the Zaydi or Shafii sects. The Zaydis live in northwestern Yemen. They have long been associated with the government and the military. The Shafii sect has a powerful merchant class. The division between the politically powerful Zaydis and the wealthy Shafiis has caused bitterness between them. Tribal relationships are also very important to many Yemenis. Conflicts between rival tribes divide many areas of the country. Rugged terrain, widely separated population centers, and poor means of communication have contributed to a diverse Yemeni population.
Way of life.
Many Yemenis work as farmers or herders. Farmers grow crops in the highland valleys and on terraced hillsides. Herders raise sheep in the drier regions. Many people make a living by doing craftwork. These workers produce handicrafts in small, one-room shops. They make such articles as inlaid jambiyas (daggers), wooden chests, brassware, and jewelry. On the coasts and on Socotra Island, many people live by fishing from rafts and small boats.
Despite rapid urbanization in recent decades, most Yemenis still live in small towns and villages. The many-storied stone and mud-brick buildings of some areas in the interior contrast with the circular thatched-roofed dwellings on the coast. Outside the family and above an early age, males and females tend to be segregated.
Food, clothing, and customs.
Grains (including sorghum, millet, and wheat), lamb, chicken, fish, and some fruits and vegetables are the chief foods in Yemen. The favorite dish in the northern highlands is a spicy stew called sulta. Especially in cities and towns, women are veiled and wear black head-to-foot gowns. Whether in white robes, colorful skirts, or pants, men often wear sport coats. Many men wear jambiyas. Most Yemenis chew the leaves of a plant called qat (also spelled khat). These leaves contain a mild stimulant and produce a feeling of well-being. On many afternoons, men and women gather separately in groups and chew qat. These gatherings allow people to socialize, discuss the issues of the day, exchange information, hear and settle disputes, and listen to musicians and poets.
Education.
About 70 percent of the people of Yemen 15 years of age or older can read and write. Children in rural areas and girls throughout the country get little or no education. In rural areas, much of the education takes place in Muslim religious schools. Yemen’s first university, the University of Sanaa, was founded in 1970.
Land
Yemen has jagged mountains that rise abruptly about 25 miles (40 kilometers) inland from a low, flat coastal desert, the Tihama. The mountains are parallel to the Red Sea, running north to south the length of North Yemen. The mountains and highlands have a semi-arid and temperate climate. The Tihama and southern coast are extremely hot and humid much of the year. Temperatures there range from 68 °F to 130 °F (20 °C to 54 °C). The large area east of the highlands gradually descends into a vast desert, Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter.
Streambeds, called wadis, descend from the mountains to the west into the sea or east into the interior. Dry during most of the year, the wadis fill with water during the rainy season and have water beneath the surface at other times.
Monsoon winds blow inland from the sea and bring rain to the mountains. This considerable seasonal rainfall accounts for both cultivation of crops—much of it in the wadis and on terraced hillsides—and the relatively dense population in the highlands. North Yemen, with higher and more numerous mountains than South Yemen, has greater rainfall, more extensive agriculture, and a larger population. Much of eastern South Yemen is uninhabitable, except for coastal fishing villages and the densely populated Wadi Hadhramawt. Much larger in area than North Yemen, South Yemen has only about one-fourth as many people.
Economy
Yemen is one of the poorest nations in the Arab world. The country has a high unemployment rate, and many of its people live in poverty. Much of the economy of Yemen depends on foreign aid and on the wages sent home by the many Yemenis who work in other parts of the Arabian Peninsula. Farming and the petroleum industry also contribute to Yemen’s income.
Agriculture employs much of Yemen’s work force. Farmers raise beef and dairy cattle, chickens, goats, and sheep. Leading crops include grapes, mangoes, onions, potatoes, sorghum, tomatoes, and wheat. Khat is the leading cash crop of Yemen. It comes from the leaves of a woody shrub that grows in the highlands. Coffee is another important cash crop. Coffee plants grow on terraces cut into the hills. Since the early 1980’s, the Yemenis have worked to turn desert areas into farmland by means of dams, irrigation, and other water and agricultural development projects.
Manufacturing plays a small role in Yemen’s economy. Aden’s oil refinery and port provide Yemen with much of its income. The oil refinery processes oil shipped from other countries, mostly those on the Persian Gulf. Yemen also manufactures cement and food products.
Oil and natural gas are Yemen’s main mined products. In the early 1980’s, petroleum deposits were found in several parts of the country, and development of Yemen’s natural gas reserves began in 2005. The country also has deposits of cobalt, copper, gold, silver, zinc, and other minerals.
Yemen imports more than it exports. The main imports include cars, food, and petroleum products. Crude oil is the country’s leading export. Yemen’s trading partners include China, India, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
History
People have lived in Yemen for thousands of years. From 1000 B.C. to A.D. 500, Yemen provided the route—the “frankincense trail”—for goods from the east and south that were prized by the great civilizations to the north. Several trading kingdoms sat along this route, the most famous being the Kingdom of Saba, ruled by the Queen of Sheba. The prosperity of these states ended when the Romans made the Red Sea their main avenue of commerce, shifting importance away from the frankincense trail.
In A.D. 632, Yemen became one of the first countries introduced to Islam. The Zaydi kingdom was established in North Yemen in A.D. 897, thus making the northern highlands the home of the Zaydi sect of Shī`ah Islam. In the south, the Shafii form of Sunni Islam has dominated since the 1100’s. By then, the center of the Islamic world had shifted east to Baghdad, leaving Yemen outside the mainstream. The Ottoman Empire, centered in what is now Turkey, took over Yemen in 1517. The Ottoman Turks were expelled 100 years later after a long struggle led by the Zaydi kingdom.
Formation of North Yemen.
The Ottoman Turks returned to Yemen in 1849, and a separate North Yemen emerged at the end of World War I (1914-1918). After failed attempts to overthrow the kingdom in 1948 and 1955, a military coup succeeded in 1962, forming the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR). Civil war then erupted. The new republic was supported by Egypt and the Soviet Union, while royalist forces were backed by Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The struggle ended in 1970 with the formation of a conservative government that included some royalists. In the years that followed, the YAR became dependent on Saudi Arabia, as well as other foreign aid.
In 1974, a military government replaced the civilian one. The military regime was then overthrown in 1977, replaced by a new government that failed in 1978. At that time, a young army officer and tribesman, Ali Abdullah Salih, became president. Salih’s General People’s Congress (GPC) held onto power with support from the military, various tribes, and northern business interests.
Formation of South Yemen.
The United Kingdom seized Aden in 1839 to protect its vital route to India. By 1870, Aden had become a military base, as well as an important refueling station for ships bound for Asia by way of the new Suez Canal. To defend Aden from the Ottoman occupiers of North Yemen and, later, from the Zaydi kingdom, the United Kingdom extended its control to the many small states surrounding Aden. The United Kingdom signed treaties with the tribal leaders, promising protection and aid in return for loyalty. The region came to be known as the Aden Protectorates.
In 1959, six tribal states in the protectorate formed the Federation of the Arab Emirates of the South. The United Kingdom signed a treaty with the federation, promising to grant independence in the future. Meanwhile, the British controlled the federation’s foreign policy and provided military protection and economic aid. In 1962, the name of the federation was changed to the Federation of South Arabia. By 1965, Aden and all but four of the tribal states in the protectorate had joined the federation.
In the early 1960’s, the United Kingdom tried to form a representative government that would rule the federation after independence. But radical Arab nationalist leaders in Aden and tribal leaders in the protectorate both wanted to rule. The radicals began an armed struggle against the British and the tribal leaders. Two radical groups, the National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen (FLOSY), also fought each other. In late 1967, the federation government collapsed. After the United Kingdom withdrew its troops on November 30, the NLF formed a new government. The NLF proclaimed the federation an independent country—the People’s Republic of South Yemen. In 1970, the name was changed to the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY).
After independence, the NLF became the National Front, which merged with several smaller political groups in 1975 and formed the United Political Organization National Front (UPONF). In 1978, the groups that made up UPONF reorganized as the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP). PDRY leaders favored some political principles of Karl Marx, one of the founders of Communism. The PDRY developed strong ties with the Soviet Union, Cuba, and other Communist countries. These countries provided much aid.
Unification.
In 1972 and 1979, the separate Yemens ended border wars by agreeing to unite. These agreements were soon ignored. Relations improved in the late 1980’s, and the two Yemens again agreed to unite. In May 1990, the YAR and PDRY combined to create the Republic of Yemen (ROY). The YAR’s Ali Abdullah Salih became president of the ROY. The PDRY’s leader, Ali Salim al-Baydh, became vice president.
Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait caused considerable trouble, as Yemen refused to join the effort to expel Iraq by force. In response, the United States, Saudi Arabia, and other nations cut foreign aid to Yemen. Far more damaging, the Saudis expelled about 800,000 Yemeni workers, cutting off remittances (money sent home) and creating massive unemployment. Disagreements between supporters of Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Salih, from North Yemen, and its vice president, Ali Salim al-Baydh, from South Yemen, led to a civil war between northerners and southerners in May 1994. The fighting caused thousands of deaths and much destruction. Troops loyal to Salih won the war in July, and the country remained united. In 1999, Yemen held its first election in which the president was elected directly by the people. Salih won the election and continued as president. He was reelected in 2006.
Worsening economic conditions contributed to increased militant Islamist activity in the late 1990’s. In 1998, 12 tourists were kidnapped, 4 of whom were murdered. Thereafter, troubles with the terrorist organization al-Qa`ida and similar groups increased. Terrorists bombed the American warship Cole at anchor in Aden in October 2000, killing 17 U.S. sailors. Bombings by al-Qa`ida and its allies occurred in Sanaa’s diplomatic quarter in the first half of 2008. Then, in September, a suicide bombing at the U.S. embassy in Sanaa took 19 lives.
Civil and political violence continued to plague Yemen. In the south, protests and demonstrations against the Salih regime began in 2007. A Zaydi rebellion in the far north erupted in 2004. A truce was agreed upon in 2008, but violence returned and became open warfare in the second half of 2009.
In 2011, protests again erupted against Salih’s government. Security forces responded violently, killing hundreds of protesters. Despite rising international criticism, Salih stiffened the government’s resistance against opposition forces, and violence continued. Salih was wounded in a June assassination attempt and taken to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment. He returned to Yemen in September as violence increased. Adding to the unrest, Islamic militants in Yemen’s southern provinces continued to fight government security forces. In late 2011, Salih agreed to transfer power to his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Hadi became president in February 2012.
In 2013, Islamic extremists and southern rebels renewed attacks on Yemeni government and civilian targets, killing hundreds of people. Hundreds more died in 2014 as violence continued. A Shī`ite Muslim rebel group known as the Houthis took control of Sanaa in September. After sporadic fighting, they forced Hadi to flee Yemen in February 2015. That same month, the Houthis joined with rival factions to form a “people’s transitional council” in an attempt to govern the country. Sunni militants loyal to Hadi continued to fight, however, and bloody clashes occurred in Sanaa, Aden, and elsewhere. In March, warplanes from Saudi Arabia and other nearby countries began attacking Houthi forces, in support of Hadi’s government.
Yemen fell into civil war. Tens of thousands of people died of violence and famine. In addition, the terrorist groups al-Qa`ida and the Islamic State took advantage of the chaos, attacking Houthis and Yemen’s civilian Shī`ite population. Peace talks mediated by the United Nations (UN) quieted fighting in early 2016, but violence renewed in August. In 2017, former President Salih was killed during fighting in Sanaa. In 2020, Saudi Arabia called for a ceasefire during a global outbreak of the disease COVID-19. However, fighting quickly resumed. In 2021, the Houthi rebels used targeted missile strikes as they attempted to seize Marib, the last stronghold of the Hadi government.
In April 2022, the warring sides agreed to a truce. Within the Hadi government, power was transferred from Hadi to an eight-member Presidential Council headed by Rashad al-Alimi. Peace talks began in April 2023, following the restoration of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Iran had been supporting the Houthi rebels.
In late 2023 and early 2024, Houthi rebels began attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea near Yemen. They claimed to be doing so in support of Palestinian militants fighting against Israel in the Gaza Strip. These attacks disrupted international trade. In response, the United States and the United Kingdom, allies of Israel, launched missile attacks against Houthi targets in Yemen.
