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Travel to Yemen — Unbiased reviews and great deals
from TripAdvisor Yemen
Republic of Yemen National name: Al-Jumhuriyah
al-Yamaniyah President: Ali Abdullah
Saleh (1990) Prime Minister: Ali
Muhammad Mujawar (2007) Current government officials
Total area: 203,849 sq mi (527,969 sq
km) Population (2007 est.):
22,211,743 (growth rate: 3.5%); birth rate: 42.7/1000; infant
mortality rate: 58.3/1000; life expectancy: 62.5; density per sq mi:
109 Capital and largest city (2003
est.): Sanaá, 1,778,900 Other large cities: Aden, 568,700;
Hodiedah, 426,100; Tiaz, 317,600 Monetary
unit: Rial Language: Arabic Ethnicity/race: predominantly Arab; but also Afro-Arab, South Asians, Europeans Religions: Islam (including Sunni and Shiite), small numbers of Jewish,
Christian, and Hindu Literacy
rate: 50% (2003 est.) Economic
summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.): $52.05 billion; per capita
$2,300. Real growth rate: 3.1%. Inflation: 12.5%.
Unemployment: 35% (2003 est.). Arable land: 3%.
Agriculture: grain, fruits, vegetables, pulses, qat, coffee,
cotton; dairy products, livestock (sheep, goats, cattle, camels),
poultry; fish. Labor force: 6.316 million; most people are
employed in agriculture and herding; services, construction, industry,
and commerce account for less than one-fourth of the labor force.
Industries: crude oil production and petroleum refining;
small-scale production of cotton textiles and leather goods; food
processing; handicrafts; small aluminum products factory; cement;
commercial ship repair. Natural resources: petroleum, fish,
rock salt, marble, small deposits of coal, gold, lead, nickel, copper,
fertile soil in west. Exports: $8.214 billion f.o.b. (2006
est.): crude oil, coffee, dried and salted fish. Imports:
$5.042 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.): food and live animals,
machinery and equipment, chemicals. Major trading partners:
Thailand, China, Singapore, UAE, Saudi Arabia, France, India,
U.S., Kuwait (2004). Communications:
Telephones: main lines in use: 968,400 (2006); mobile cellular:
2.075 million. Radio broadcast stations: AM 6, FM 1, shortwave
2 (1998). Radios: 1.05 million (1997). Television broadcast
stations: 7 (plus several low-power repeaters) (1997).
Televisions: 470,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers
(ISPs): 171 (2006). Internet users: 220,000 (2005). Transportation: Railways: 0 km.
Highways: total: 71,300 km ; paved: 6,200 km; unpaved: 65,100
km (2005 est.). Ports and harbors: Aden, Al Hudaydah, Al
Mukalla, As Salif, Ras Issa, Mocha, Nishtun. Airports: 44
(2002). International disputes:
Eritrea protests Yemeni fishing around the Hanish islands awarded to
Eritrea by the ICJ in 1999; nomadic groups in border region with Saudi
Arabia resist demarcation of boundary. Major sources and definitions |
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Geography Formerly
divided into two nations, the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and the
Yemen Arab Republic, the Republic of Yemen occupies the southwest tip of the
Arabian Peninsula on the Red Sea opposite Ethiopia and extends along the
southern part of the Arabian Peninsula on the Gulf of Aden and the Indian
Ocean. Saudi Arabia is to the north and Oman is to the east. The country is
about the size of France. A 700-mile (1,130-km) narrow coastal plain in the
south gives way to a mountainous region and then a plateau area. Government Parliamentary republic.
History The history of Yemen dates
back to the Minaean (1200–650 B.C.) and Sabaean
(750–115 B.C.) kingdoms. Ancient Yemen (centered
around the port of Aden) engaged in the lucrative myrrh and frankincense
trade. It was invaded by the Romans (1st century A.D.) as well as the Ethiopians and Persians (6th
century A.D.). In A.D.
628 it converted to Islam and in the 10th century came under the control of
the Rassite dynasty of the Zaidi sect, which remained involved in North
Yemeni politics until 1962. The Ottoman Turks nominally occupied the area
from 1538 to the decline of their empire in 1918. The northern
portion of Yemen was ruled by imams until a pro-Egyptian military coup took
place in 1962. The junta proclaimed the Yemen Arab Republic, and after a
civil war in which Egypt's Nasser and the USSR supported the revolutionaries
and King Saud of Saudi Arabia and King Hussein of Jordan supported the
royalists, the royalists were finally defeated in mid-1969. The
southern port of Aden, strategically located at the opening of the Red Sea,
was colonized by Britain in 1839, and by 1937, with an expansion of its
territory, it was known as the Aden Protectorate. In the 1960s the
Nationalist Liberation Front (NLF) fought against British rule, which led to
the establishment of the People's Republic of Southern Yemen on Nov. 30,
1967. In 1979, under strong Soviet influence, the country became the only
Marxist state in the Arab world. The Republic of Yemen was
established on May 22, 1990, when pro-Western Yemen and the Marxist Yemen
Arab Republic merged after 300 years of separation to form the new nation.
The poverty and decline in Soviet economic support in the south was an
important incentive for the merger. The new president, Ali Abdullah Saleh,
was elected by the parliaments of both countries. Differences over
power sharing and the pace of integration between the north and the south
came to a head in 1994, resulting in a civil war. The north's superior
forces quickly overwhelmed the south in May and early June despite the
south's brief declaration of succession. The victorious north presented a
reconciliation plan providing for a general amnesty and pledges to protect
political democracy. The president's party, the General People's
Congress, won an enormous victory in the April 1997 parliamentary elections,
the first since the civil war. In 1998–1999, a militant Islamic group, the
Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, kidnapped several groups of Western tourists, which
led to the deaths of several during a poorly orchestrated rescue attempt.
The group's leader, Zein al-Abidine al-Mihdar, threatened to continue
attacks on tourists and government officials. The goal of the militants is
to overthrow the government and turn Yemen into an Islamic state. On
Oct. 12, 2000, 17 Americans died and 37 were wounded when suicide bombers
attacked the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole, which was refueling in Aden,
Yemen. The U.S. had numerous clashes with Yemeni authorities during the
investigation of the terrorist act. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on
the U.S., however, Yemen increased its cooperation with the U.S. and
assisted in antiterrorism measures. In Oct. 2002, a French tanker, the
Limburg, was also the victim of a terrorist attack off the coast of
Yemen. Ten suspects of the Cole bombing escaped from prison in April
2003; seven, including the two suspected masterminds of the attack, were
recaptured in 2004. Fifteen militants were convicted in Aug. 2004 on a
variety of charges, including the attack on the Limburg. In
September, two key al-Qaeda operatives involved in the Cole bombing
were sentenced to death. In presidential elections in Sept. 2006,
incumbent Ali Abdullah Saleh was reelected with 77% of the vote. In March
2007, President Saleh appointed Ali Muhammad Mujawar prime minister and
asked him to form a cabinet. The government and a rebel group from
northern Yemen, called the Houthi movement, signed a cease-fire in February
2008. Thousands have died since the two sides began fighting in 2004. The
truce appeared to have fallen apart just a month later, as battles broke out
between the parties broke out again. The government has accused the Houthi
movement of receiving aid from Iran. See also Encyclopedia:
Yemen. U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Yemen Information Please® Database, © 2007
Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. More on Yemen from Infoplease:
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