Yemen 2016 Country Review http://www.countrywatch.com Table of Contents Chapter 1 1 Country Overview 1 Country Overview 2 Key Data 5 Yemen 6 Middle East 7 Chapter 2 9 Political Overview 9 History 10 Political Conditions 11 Political Risk Index 104 Political Stability 119 Freedom Rankings 134 Human Rights 146 Government Functions 148 Government Structure 149 Principal Government Officials 154 Leader Biography 155 Leader Biography 155 Foreign Relations 161 National Security 189 Defense Forces 196 Chapter 3 199 Economic Overview 199 Economic Overview 200 Nominal GDP and Components 202 Population and GDP Per Capita 204 Real GDP and Inflation 205 Government Spending and Taxation 206 Money Supply, Interest Rates and Unemployment 207 Foreign Trade and the Exchange Rate 208 Data in US Dollars 209 Energy Consumption and Production Standard Units 210 Energy Consumption and Production QUADS 212 World Energy Price Summary 213 CO2 Emissions 214 Agriculture Consumption and Production 215 World Agriculture Pricing Summary 218 Metals Consumption and Production 219 World Metals Pricing Summary 222 Economic Performance Index 223 Chapter 4 235 Investment Overview 235 Foreign Investment Climate 236 Foreign Investment Index 239 Corruption Perceptions Index 252 Competitiveness Ranking 263 Taxation 272 Stock Market 272 Partner Links 273 Chapter 5 274 Social Overview 274 People 275 Human Development Index 277 Life Satisfaction Index 280 Happy Planet Index 292 Status of Women 301 Global Gender Gap Index 304 Culture and Arts 314 Etiquette 315 Travel Information 316 Diseases/Health Data 326 Chapter 6 332 Environmental Overview 332 Environmental Issues 333 Environmental Policy 334 Greenhouse Gas Ranking 335 Global Environmental Snapshot 346 Global Environmental Concepts 357 International Environmental Agreements and Associations 371 Appendices 396 Bibliography 397 Yemen Chapter 1 Country Overview Yemen Review 2016 Page 1 of 409 pages Yemen Country Overview YEMEN Yemen is a country in Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Red Sea. The modern Republic of Yemen was born in 1990 when traditionalist North Yemen and Marxist South Yemen merged after years of border wars and skirmishes. The country was divided since the early 16th century when the Ottoman Empire conquered north Yemen which became independent in 1918. Meanwhile, Aden and the southeastern part of the country were under British control since 1839. The British withdrew in 1967 from what became South Yemen, and three years later the southern government adopted a Marxist orientation following a coup. 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 in 1994 was quickly subdued. Today, Yemen is a small oil producer, but its economy depends heavily on oil, and the country has few other natural resources. These challenges are compounded by rapid population growth, poor infrastructure and weak institutional capacity, making Yemen one of the poorest countries in the Middle East. Yemen is now on the radar of powerful nation states as an emerging base of radical jihadist Islamists seeking to carry out terror attacks against targets in the West. From 2009 to the present, Yemen has become a a stronghold for Islamic extremists and militants, many of whom belong to the al-Qaida terror enclave, and thus giving rise to the Yemen-based al-Qaida entity known as al- Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). An attempted terror attack on an airliner on Christmas day in 2009, as well as a cargo plane terror plot in 2010 led to fears of Yemen going down the road of Afghanistan a decade earlier as the world's new base of Islamic Jihadish terrorism. As such, the United States has become more involved in Yemen and has been credited with helping Yemeni forces carry out military offensives against major al-Qaida bases in that country, much to the consternation of al-Qaida itself. That being said, there is no visible American military presence in Yemen, which prefers to achieve its anti-terrorism effort in Yemen using targeted anti-terrorism techniques, including drone strikes and intelligence sharing. For his part, (now-resigned) President Ali Abdullah Saleh had to establish a delicate balancing act of working with the West to deal with the threat of terrorism from within Yemen's borders, while not alienating the Yemeni citizenry, many of whom sympathize with Islamic extremism. But in Yemen Review 2016 Page 2 of 409 pages Yemen fact, Yemen is the base of both foreign and local al-Qaida fighters. The local fighters are often aided by relatives, typically as a result of tribal loyalty more than ideology. However, when these fighters are killed or arrested by government forces, these heavily-armed tribes often are emotionally driven to increase support of the militants. Meanwhile, Yemen has also been home to thousands of Islamic militants who are veterans of several "holy wars" in other countries and regions, including Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya. While most of these Islamic militant veterans are no longer active, they nonetheless maintain their extremist views in keeping with al- Qaida ideology. As noted by Ali Saif Hassan, the manager of a Yemeni group that mediates between the government and opposition: "It is difficult to draw the line between who is a fundamentalist and who is al-Qaida. It's a spectrum." As constituents of the country, these elements form part of the broader anti-American and anti-Western base of the country, over which the government has only fragile control. Meanwhile, the government of Yemen has had to deal with other rebellions and threats to national security, such as the Shi'a Zaidi rebellion, which led to the rise in violent attacks in certain regions of the country since 2004. Known as the Houthis, the Shi'a Zaidi rebels have said they seek greater autonomy. At the core of the Shi'a Zaidi rebellion has been the claim that the government of Yemen is too closely aligned with the United States, which has provided supplies and training to Yemen's security forces under the aegis of the "war on terror." The rebels also blame the government for both corruption and discrimination. But Yemen's government has accused the northern Shi'ite rebels, led by Abdul Malik al-Houthi, of trying to oust the democratic government and advancing Shi'a theocratic rule in the country. Indeed, the government has accused the rebels of seeking to re-establish clerical rule that ended with the 1962 Yemeni revolution that yielded the republic. The situation has sometimes spilled over the border into Saudi Arabia and has illuminated the challenges facing the Yemeni government in terms of national security. Specifically, even as the Yemeni government has had to deal with this rebel threat in the north of the country, there has been another territorial battle against secessionists in the south, as well as the emerging threat posed by al-Qaida terrorists operating from its terrain. Apart from these political challenges, Yemen is also plagued by an unemployment rate that some estimate is as high as 40 percent, chronic poverty, increased food prices, high levels of illiteracy, and malnutrition. In these ways, Yemen's political, economic and human development challenges are illustrative of complicated terrain that is ripe for further exploitation by extremist, militant, and terrorist elements. It was hoped that the election of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in 2012 would shift Yemen onto more positive footing. The developments in 2014 with the Houthi Zaidi rebels grabbing control over Sanaa, coupled with the intensified campaign of aggression from rival al-Qaida terrorists, presented a genuine challenge to President Hadi and the government of Yemen. That challenged morphed into a security crisis at the start of 2015 as the Houth Zaidi movement attempted to topple the government of Yemen. Of Yemen Review 2016 Page 3 of 409 pages Yemen course, in the backdrop of effort was the continuing threat posed by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which was carrying out attacks in Yemen in a bid to wrest influence away from the Houthis. The fresh threat posed by Islamic State against the Houthis in March 2015, manifest in a destructive attack on Sanaa, made the dire security situation significantly worse. The situation was morphing into a geopolitical morass, with the advance of the Iranian-backed Houthis on the second city Aden, the decision by President Hadi to flee the country, and the commencement of air strikes by Saudi Arabia on Yemen. Indeed, Yemen in the year 2015 was the site of a dangerous power struggle between these various players and disparate factions, and headed by weakened leadership, which was made distinctly worse by the the exit of President Hadi. Yemen was thus alarmingly close to slipping off the proverbial cliff into the abyss of being a failed state. Yemen Review 2016 Page 4 of 409 pages Yemen Key Data Key Data Region: Middle East Population: 26667204 Climate: Mostly desert; hot and humid along west coast Languages: Arabic (official) Currency: Yemeni Rial (YRI) (New Currency) Proclamation of the Republic is 22 May (1990), National Day is 14 October, Holiday: National Unity Day is 22 May Area Total: 527970 Area Land: 527970 Coast Line: 1906 Yemen Review 2016 Page 5 of 409 pages Yemen Yemen Country Map Yemen Review 2016 Page 6 of 409 pages Yemen Middle East Regional Map Yemen Review 2016 Page 7 of 409 pages Yemen Yemen Review 2016 Page 8 of 409 pages Yemen Chapter 2 Political Overview Yemen Review 2016 Page 9 of 409 pages Yemen History Yemen was one of the oldest centers of civilization in the Near East.