Yemen, officially Republic of Yemen, republic (1995 est. pop. 14,728,000), 207,000 sq mi (536,000 sq km), SW Asia, on the S Arabian peninsula, bordered by Saudia Arabia (N), Oman (E), the Gulf of Aden (S), and the Red Sea (W); formed in 1990 by the union of the Yemen Arab Republic (Yemen or Northern Yemen) and People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (Southern Yemen). The capital is Sana; the port of Adenis the commercial capital. A narrow coastal plain rises to interior highlands and the Rub al Khali desert. The country includes several islands, e.g., Perim and Socotra. Yemen is very poor. Most of the population is engaged in growing grains, vegetables, fruits, cotton, coffee, and khat (a stimulant-containing shrub) and raising sheep, goats, and camels. Oil has been produced since the late 1980s, and imported oil is also processed into petroleum products for export. Salt is the only other commercially exploitable mineral. Manufacturing, largely based on agricultural products, provides little revenue. Foreign aid and remittances from Yemenis working abroad are important to the economy. Yemen is the most populous nation on the Arabian peninsula. The great majority of the inhabitants are Arabs, about two thirds of whom are Sunni Muslims; the rest are Shiite Muslims. Arabic is the official language.
HistoryOnce part of the ancient Sabaean kingdom (fl. c.750 &BC;–115 &BC;), Yemen was later ruled by the Himyarites, Romans, Ethiopians, and Persians. It was conquered by Muslim Arabs in the 7th cent. &AD;, and in the 16th cent. it became part of the Ottoman Empire. The northwestern portion bordering on the Red Sea became (1918) an independent kingdom (known as Yemen or Northern Yemen) ruled by the Rassite dynasty, imams of the Zaidi Shiite sect of Islam.
In 1962 an army coup led to the proclamation of a republic. Civil war followed, with Egypt supporting the republicans and Saudi Arabia and Jordan backing the royalists; it ended in 1970 with a republic in place. The southern portion bordering on the Gulf of Aden was penetrated in the 19th cent. by the British, who conquered Aden in 1839 and between 1886 and 1914 signed a number of protectorate treaties with local rulers. Aden was made a crown colony in 1935, and the area to its east became the Aden Protectorate in 1937.
In the 1960s, nationalist groups demanding independence began a terrorist campaign against the British, and independence was granted to Southern Yemen in 1967. The National Liberation Front gained control of the government and established a Marxist regime in 1971. Unity agreements between the two Yemens in 1971 and 1981 were not implemented because of recurrent warfare, but a merger negotiated in 1989 resulted in formal unification in 1990. Pres. Ali Abdullah Saleh of Northern Yemen became president. By 1993, however, relations between the north and south had grown tense, and fighting between army units in 1994 erupted into a nine-week civil war in which northern forces were victorious. Yemen clashed with Eritrea over control of the Hanish Islands in the Red Sea in 1995; the Hague Tribunal awarded the islands to Yemen in 1998.
In 1999, in Yemen's first direct presidential election, Saleh was returned to office amid opposition charges of fraud. A border treaty ending disputes with Saudi Arabia that dated to the 1930s was signed in 2000, and early in 2001 the two nations began implementing the pact.
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 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-Hawthi, 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 N Yemen, in which hundreds died, followed, and in September Sheikh Hawthi was killed and a cease-fire mediated. Fighting erupted again in Apr., 2005, when the government attacked Hawthi’s followers 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.
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