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Yemen
North Yemen became
independent of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. The
British, who had set up a protectorate area around the southern port of
Aden in the 19th century, withdrew in 1967 from what became South
Yemen. Three years later, the southern government adopted a Marxist
orientation. The massive exodus of hundreds of thousands of Yemenis
from the south to the north contributed to two decades of hostility
between the states. The two countries were formally unified as the
Republic of Yemen in 1990. A southern secessionist movement and brief
civil war in 1994 was quickly subdued. In 2000, Saudi Arabia and Yemen
agreed to a delimitation of their border. Fighting in the northwest
between the government and Huthi rebels, a group seeking a return to
traditional Zaydi Islam, began in 2004 and has since resulted in six
rounds of fighting – the last ended in early 2010 with a ceasefire that
continues to hold. The southern secessionist movement was revitalized
in 2008 when a popular socioeconomic protest movement initiated the
prior year took on political goals including secession. Public rallies
in Sana’a against then President SALIH – inspired by similar
demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt – slowly built momentum starting in
late January 2011 fueled by complaints over high unemployment, poor
economic conditions, and corruption. By the following month, some
protests had resulted in violence, and the demonstrations had spread to
other major cities. By March the opposition had hardened its demands
and was unifying behind calls for SALIH’s immediate ouster. The Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) in late April 2011, in an attempt to mediate
the crisis in Yemen, proposed an agreement in which the president would
step down in exchange for immunity from prosecution. SALIH’s refusal to
sign an agreement led to heavy street fighting and his injury in an
explosion in June 2011. The UN Security Council passed Resolution 2014
in October 2011 calling on both sides to end the violence and complete
a power transfer deal. In late November 2011, SALIH signed the
GCC-brokered agreement to step down and to transfer some of his powers
to Vice President Abd Rabuh Mansur HADI. Following elections in
February 2012, won by HADI, SALIH formally transferred his powers.In
accordance with the GCC initiative, Yemen launched a National Dialogue
to discuss key constitutional, political, and social issues in
mid-March 2013.
Location – Middle East,
bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Red Sea, between Oman and
Saudi Arabia
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