Yemen’s location along the ancient spice routes turned it into one of the oldest centers of civilization in the Near East.
Until 1963, Yemen was governed by a Zaidi Imamate, which was overthrown in a coup in which a then very young army officer, Ali Abdallah Saleh, played an important role. The coup provoked a civil war that drew in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The war ended with the formation of two Yemeni states, North Yemen, governed by Saleh, and a Marxist South Yemen.
The modern Republic of Yemen was born in 1990 when traditionalist North Yemen and Marxist South Yemen were merged. Their respective governments had declared their intention to unite as far back as 1972, but it took almost twenty years, and several border conflicts, for the new state to be formally created.
Despite this agreement, violence broke out in 1994 as leaders in the South sought to secede and create a separate state. The U.S. and other countries pushed for a cease-fire and for negotiations, and after several months of turmoil, Yemen remained united.
Yet the consolidation of unified Yemen did not resolve important sources of tension and conflict, both between north and south and between the new central government and important social groups in both parts of the country.
President Saleh ruled, in effect, by managing a loose coalition between the central government and leading tribal federations. This enabled him to hold on to power for decades, but it limited Yemen’s economic and political development.
In January 2011, following closely on the heels of Egypt’s and Tunisia’s popular uprisings, longstanding socio-economic grievances in Yemen were given voice by a large-scale student-led protest movement calling for reform. When these non-violent protests were brutally put down by the state, a mass movement soon emerged that called for sweeping reforms and a change in leadership. While the capital city of Sana'a was the hub of popular protests, the movement spread, with thousands taking to the streets in such urban centers as Aden and Taiz. Yemeni women were particularly active in the political protests, most prominent among them journalist and human rights activist Tawakkol Karman whom many Yemenis dubbed “The Mother of the Revolution” for her role in first raising the call and mobilizing the protests towards regime change. Karman was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her role, making her the first Arab woman to receive the honor.
Following a combination of concessions and repression, President Saleh finally agreed to accept a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-brokered mechanism through which he would cede power in exchange for immunity. However, Saleh agreed to and then backed away from the deal three times and barely survived an assassination attempt before finally signing the agreement in October 2011. By the terms of the agreement, Saleh’s vice president since 1994, Abdo Rabbuh Mansour Al-Hadi, became Acting President and was expected to form a national unity government and call for early presidential elections within 90 days. While Al-Hadi was the only candidate in the presidential election that was held on February 21, 2012, he was backed by the ruling party as well as the parliamentary opposition, and voter turnout was high. He was formally sworn in as the president of Yemen on February 27, 2012. Saleh left the country in January 2012 after having been granted full immunity by parliament.
Many questions remain over Yemen’s political future. Yemen is considered a failing state, with over half of the population living on less than $2 a day, exorbitant unemployment and illiteracy, rampant corruption, extreme water scarcity and resource depletion, and one of the highest population growth rates in the world. Due to Saleh’s long-standing inability to extend control over large swaths of Yemeni territory, parts of the country have proven fertile ground for terrorist groups to gain influence, capitalizing on the grievances of Yemenis whose needs are not met by the central government. Addressing these grievances in a constructive way is of great importance, many observers note; unless the national transition is accompanied by an improvement in local conditions, it is unlikely to be seen as successful. However, a survey in early 2013 found that the state’s security establishment remained ineffective in cities and largely absent in rural areas.
National and local security also remains important because of threats from terrorist organizations. The terrorist group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and associated groups have found haven in the country’s remote south. AQAP has reportedly been behind several international terror threats, including the attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner in December 2009, the bombing of a military parade in Sana’a in May 2012 that killed more than 90 Yemeni troops, and attacks on two military targets in the South in September 2013 that killed at least 21 soldiers. Al-Hadi has sworn to make combating AQAP a priority and, like the Saleh government before him, is receiving strong U.S. counter-terrorism support towards this effort, which is squarely within U.S. security interests. In June 2013, three al-Qaeda strongholds were recaptured in the South. Internal instability and insecurity have strained relations with neighboring states: for example, a Saudi diplomat was assassinated in November 2012, and there are continuous security threats along the Saudi-Yemeni border. As a result, Saudi Arabia began construction on a border fence in April 2013.
Also, in April 2013, a UN-backed National Dialogue began in Yemen aimed at drafting a new constitution and preparing the country for democratic elections in 2014. However, the process was marked by political violence across the country and mass protests in the south, in particular. The Houthis took advantage of growing frustration with Hadi’s government and mobilized mass protests in Sana'a in summer 2014. In September 2014, the Houthis took over the capital, inducing Hadi to enter into peace negotiations. A new political arrangement – the Peace and National Partnership Agreement (PNPA) – emerged and displaced the GCC-brokered agreement. A first draft of Yemen’s new Constitution, which was leaked to the press on January 14, 2015, alarmed the Houthis:the new PNPA framework was purportedly not being respected. On January, 17 2015, the Houthis kidnapped President al-Hadi's chief of staff and overtook the Presidential Palace. Though a deal and a ceasefire were brokered a few days later, al-Hadi and his entire cabinet resigned on January 22.
Since the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, Yemen's path has been shaky, but the events of January 2015 have created the most serious crisis facing the country in decades.
