Yemen: Unified Yemen

Unified Yemen

The leaders of the two Yemens met in Dec., 1989, when final unification agreements were made, and the borders were opened in Feb., 1990. On May 22 of that year, the two Yemens were officially united. North Yemen president Saleh became the leader of a unified Yemen, and Sana became the nation's capital. By 1993, however, relations between north and south had again grown tense. Fighting between northern and southern army units in 1994 erupted into a civil war between southern secessionists and Yemen's northern-based government. The war lasted for nine weeks and was decisively won by northern forces. Subsequently, Saleh was officially elected by parliament as president of the country, and a coalition government that excluded the leading southern party was established. The new government imposed unpopular economic austerity measures. Muslim extremists committed sporadic acts of violence in the south, and armed tribespeople from remote areas staged kidnappings of foreign tourists.

Yemen's armed forces clashed with Eritrea over control of the Hanish Islands in the Red Sea in the early 1990s; the Hague Tribunal awarded the islands to Yemen in 1998. The president's party won nearly two thirds of the seats in the 1997 legislative elections. In Sept., 1999, in Yemen's first direct presidential election, Saleh was returned to office; candidates from opposition parties were not approved to run, and the government was charged with fraudulently inflating the vote count. In Oct., 2000, the U.S.S. Cole was damaged by a suicide bombing while anchored at Aden and the British embassy was bombed. Also in 2000, a border treaty ending disputes with Saudi Arabia that dated to the 1930s was signed.

President Saleh announced support for the U.S. “war on terror” in 2001 and subsequently received American aid and made some moves against Muslim extremists, but the terror attacks also continued. Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) won more than two thirds of the seats in the 2003 legislative elections. In June, 2004, government forces began raids against supporters of Shiite cleric Hussein al-Houthi, who was accused of sedition and extremism. The cleric had denounced the government's pro-American policies and government corruption. Several months of fighting in NW Yemen, in which hundreds died, followed, and in September Sheikh Houthi was killed and a cease-fire mediated. Fighting erupted again in Apr., 2005, when the government attacked his followers, commonly referred to as Houthis or Hawthis, after unsuccessful negotiations. Almost a year later some 600 rebels were released in an amnesty, but attacks continued spordically until June, 2007, when a cease-fire was agreed to. There were, however, additional attacks by Jan., 2008, and in subsequent months, and fighting with the rebels intensifed in the second half of 2009, displacing some 200,000 persons. In Nov., 2009, a rebel incursion into Saudi Arabia led also to fighting between Saudi forces and the rebels. The conflict extended into Feb., 2010, when a truce was established; the rebels also withdrew from Saudi Arabia. The truce largely held, although there were clashes in July, 2010. There also have been clashes with Islamic militants linked to Al Qaeda, with an increase in operations against them in E Yemen in early 2010 after an attempted bombing (Dec. 25, 2009) of a plane in the United States by a Nigerian with ties to the Yemeni Islamists.

Meanwhile, in July, 2005, fuel price increases sparked protests and riots across Yemen, leading the government to roll the increases back somewhat. That same month the president said he would not seek a new term in Sept., 2006, a position he reversed a year later. In the 2006 presidential Saleh was reelected with more than three-fourths of the vote, but the opposition rejected the results. Despite irregularities, the election was generally regarded as an improvement over the previous presidential poll.

By early 2008, S Yemeni unhappiness with unification was again becoming pronounced, as protests and riots occurred in parts of S Yemen; sporadic unrest continued into 2010. Amid protests in early 2011 against his rule (which echoed similar protests in Tunisia and Egypt against entrenched rulers there), the president promised in February not to seek reelection. Recurring demonstrations, however, were stoked by the killings of demonstrators, which also split the ruling party and the military. By April, the widespread protests had crippled the country.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) attempted to negotiate Saleh's resignation, but the president several times reneged on agreements. The unsettled situation invigorated militant Islamists, who mounted attacks in S Yemen and were able to seize control of some areas; fighting with the Islamists continued into 2012. In late May tribal militias became increasing active in opposing Saleh, and fought with government forces in Sana and Taiz. In early June Saleh was severely wounded in an attack on the presidential compound and went to Saudi Arabia for treatment; he returned in September. A truce with the tribal militias largely held during the summer, but beginning in September there were more serious outbreaks.

In November, Saleh agreed to transfer his powers to Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi under a GCC-brokered plan, remaining on as titular president until an election (later were called for Feb., 2012). An interim government, with cabinet posts divided equally between the government and opposition and headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Basindwa, an opposition politician, was appointed in Dec., 2011; the new government subsequently approved a law granting immunity to Saleh. In Feb., 2012, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi was elected president in an election in which he was the only candidate, but Saleh remained a political force and attempted to undermine the interim government through his supporters in it and the military. The military subsequently mounted an offensive against the militant Islamists in S Yemen, and by mid-2012 had largely reestablished government control there, but the area continued to be the scene of sporadic fighting.

In August and in December, Hadi ordered armed forces reorganizations designed to reduce the influence of Saleh and others in the military. Not all the changes. however, came into effect in subsequent months. In Apr., 2013, Hadi ordered further changes and removed Saleh's relatives from military command positions. A national dialogue conference intended to help develop a new constitution for Yemen began in Mar., 2013, and ended in Jan., 2014; it approved a six-region federal system for the country and extended Hadi's term by a year.

In Sept., 2013, the prime minister was the subject of an assassination attempt. Houthi Shiites attacked in a Sunni Salafist school in NW Yemen in October and November, accusing the Salafists of running a training camp for foreign fighters. Fighting continued into 2014, spreading to other areas in the northwest as the Houthis expanded the area under their control with increasing support from Yemen's Shiites. They captured Amran (Omran), N of Sana, in mid-2014. In Apr., 2014, government forces began a new offensive against Al Qaeda–aligned militants in S Yemen; the militants launched a number of attacks in the capital in retaliation.

In August, the Houthis mounted protests around Sana against the government. When a peace deal was signed ending the conflict in September they secured control of the capital and then expanded in October W into Hodeida and, fighting Al Qaeda–aligned Sunni militants, S into central Yemen, but the Sunni militants subsequently mounted a violent retaliatory campaign. The prime minister, whom the Houthis objected to, resigned in September, and after appointment of a new prime minister (Khaled Bahah), they objected to the makeup of the cabinet, which was re-formed in December. They also seized control of a number of ministries. The Houthis received support from Saleh and military forces that continued to support him, and in November the United Nations sanctioned Saleh.

By Feb., 2015, the Houthis had formally seized control of the government, and Hadi, who they had placed under house arrest, had fled to Aden, where he attempted to rally progovernment forces. Houthi and Saleh forces advanced south toward Aden, seizing Taiz (subsequently contested by progovernment forces), and by March the opposing forces were fighting for control of Aden; that month Hadi left Yemen for Saudi Arabia, and subsequently he stayed mainly abroad (it was reported the Saudis prevented him from returning to Yemen in 2017). Also in March, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations began an air campaign and naval blockade against the Houthis, there were clashes with the Houthis along the Saudi border, and the Houthis began sporadic ballistic missile, and later also drone, attacks against Saudi Arabia. The Houthis and their allies meanwhile received financial and matériel support from Iran. The civil war in W Yemen allowed the Al Qaeda–aligned forces to seize Mukalla, a port on the central Gulf of Aden coast, in April, and that same month the United Nations imposed an arms embargo on the Houthis and their military allies.

Progovernment forces and allied Saudi-led coalition forces subsequently cleared Aden (but at least initially did not effectively reestablish order there), regained much of the south, and began an advance toward the capital. Attempts at peace negotiations and to establish a cease-fire have been generally unsuccessful. In Apr., 2016, President Hadi dismissed the prime minister and named Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr to succeed him, and progovernment forces regained control of Mukalla. Al Qaeda–aligned forces remained active, however, in parts of S Yemen.

In July, 2016, the Houthis and Saleh's GPC established a formal alliance, sharing control of governing council overseeing much of N Yemen, and in November they announced the formation of a government. Progovernment forces seized control of the port of Mocha from Houthi forces in early 2017. In May, a former governor of Aden announced a S Yemen secessionist government; its forces were formed from elements that had been part of the progovernment forces and were supported by the United Arab Emirates.

By the second half of 2017 there were tensions between Yemeni allies on both sides of the conflict, leading at times to clashes between ostensible allies. In Dec., 2017, Saleh was killed during several days of fighting between his supporters and the Houthis. Southern secessionists seized control of much of Aden from other progovernment forces in Jan., 2018, before a cease-fire was negotiated. Saudi-led forces made advances against Hodeida during 2018. President Hadi dismissed Prime Minister Daghr in Oct., 2018; Maeen Abdul Malik succeeded him.

In December both sides agreed to a cease-fire in Hodeida, combatant withdrawal from three ports and city, distribution of humanitarian aid, and a prisoner swap; the cease-fire mostly held, but the withdrawal from the ports did not occur until May, 2019, and other aspects of the deal were slow to be completed. Also in 2019, the United Arab Emirates reduced the number of forces it had committed to the stalemated conflict. In Aug., 2019, government forces and southern secessionists contested Aden, and secessionists sought to expand their control to other areas in the south. After Saudi-managed negotiations, Saudi forces took control of Aden in October. A power-sharing deal between the government and southern secessionists was signed in November, but tensions remained between the two; there were outbreaks of fighting, and the deal was not implemented.

In early 2020, fighting increased in central Yemen, and Houthi forces made a number of gains in several provinces there. In April, the southern secessionists declared they were establishing self-rule in the former Southern Yemen, though they controlled only a small part of that territory, encompassing Aden and the area around it. Subsequently, fighting broke out between government forces and the secessionists in Abyan, the governate E of Aden, and on the island of Socotra. Secessionists secured control of the latter in June, and a cease-fire was later since, but fighting resumed in Abyan in August. In Oct., 2020, Houthi and goverment forces engaged in a prisoner swap involving roughly 1,000 persons. In December, anti-Houthi forces announced that the implementation of the Nov., 2019, power-sharing agreement would begin.

An estimated 17,000 people had been killed as a result of the civil war by the end of 2015, with the death toll estimated to have reached 100,000 by the end of 2019; forces on both sides of the conflict have been accused of war crimes and of diverting food aid. The conflict has also brought economic collapse in the north, and many have died due to starvation as a result of the blockade by the Saudi-led coalition. In 2017 a cholera outbreak that had begun in 2016 rapidly grew to become the most severe such outbreak worldwide; by the end of the year 1 million were believed to have been affected. Cholera again surged in 2019, with the cumulative number of cases exceeding 2 million, and by mid-2020 COVID-19 was epidemic in Yemen.

In response to renewed fighting between Palestinians in Gaza, led by Hamas, and Israel starting in Oct., 2023, Houthi rebels began firing drones and rockets toward Israel and at commercial ships in the Gulf of Aden and S Red Sea, claiming it was interdicting supplies to Israel. Most of the attacks were intercepted by U.S. Navy war ships in the region, and later by a coalition of naval forces. The attacks resulted in widespread disruption to world-wide shipping.

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