"note":"<strong>note:</strong> includes Perim, Socotra, the former Yemen Arab Republic (YAR or North Yemen), and the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY or South Yemen)"
"text":"200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin"
}
},
"Climate":{
"text":"mostly desert; hot and humid along west coast; temperate in western mountains affected by seasonal monsoon; extraordinarily hot, dry, harsh desert in east"
},
"Terrain":{
"text":"narrow coastal plain backed by flat-topped hills and rugged mountains; dissected upland desert plains in center slope into the desert interior of the Arabian Peninsula"
"text":"the vast majority of the population is found in the Asir Mountains (part of the larger Sarawat Mountain system), located in the far western region of the country"
"text":"<p>sandstorms and dust storms in summer</p><p><strong>volcanism:</strong> limited volcanic activity; Jebel at Tair (Jabal al-Tair, Jebel Teir, Jabal al-Tayr, Jazirat at-Tair) (244 m), which forms an island in the Red Sea, erupted in 2007 after awakening from dormancy; other historically active volcanoes include Harra of Arhab, Harras of Dhamar, Harra es-Sawad, and Jebel Zubair, although many of these have not erupted in over a century</p>"
"text":"<br>كتاب حقائق العالم، المصدر الذي لا يمكن الاستغناء عنه للمعلومات الأساسية (Arabic)<br><br>The World Factbook, the indispensable source for basic information."
"note":"<strong>note:</strong>a distinct Socotri language is widely used on Socotra Island and Archipelago; Mahri is still fairly widely spoken in eastern Yemen"
"text":"Muslim 99.1% (official; virtually all are citizens, an estimated 65% are Sunni and 35% are Shia), other 0.9% (includes Jewish, Baha'i, Hindu, and Christian; many are refugees or temporary foreign residents) (2020 est.)"
"text":"the vast majority of the population is found in the Asir Mountains (part of the larger Sarawat Mountain system), located in the far western region of the country"
"text":"Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Protocol, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands"
},
"signed, but not ratified":{
"text":"Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban"
}
},
"Climate":{
"text":"mostly desert; hot and humid along west coast; temperate in western mountains affected by seasonal monsoon; extraordinarily hot, dry, harsh desert in east"
"text":"<em>due to conflict, poverty, floods, high food and fuel prices -</em> in 2023, a partial analysis in government‑controlled areas, where approximately 25 percent of the population in acute food insecurity resides, shows that the situation remains dire; despite some improvements in security, the economic crisis and localized conflicts continue, fueled by persistent political instability, while insufficient external revenues and elevated global commodity prices on imported food limits food security (2023)"
"text":"Yemen Arab Republic [Yemen (Sanaa) or North Yemen] and People's Democratic Republic of Yemen [Yemen (Aden) or South Yemen]"
},
"etymology":{
"text":"name derivation remains unclear but may come from the Arab term \"yumn\" (happiness) and be related to the region's classical name \"Arabia Felix\" (Fertile or Happy Arabia); the Romans referred to the rest of the peninsula as \"Arabia Deserta\" (Deserted Arabia)"
}
},
"Government type":{
"text":"in transition"
},
"Capital":{
"name":{
"text":"Sanaa"
},
"geographic coordinates":{
"text":"15 21 N, 44 12 E"
},
"time difference":{
"text":"UTC+3 (8 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)"
"text":"22 governorates (muhafazat, singular - muhafazah); Abyan, 'Adan (Aden), Ad Dali', Al Bayda', Al Hudaydah, Al Jawf, Al Mahrah, Al Mahwit, Amanat al 'Asimah (Sanaa City), 'Amran, Arkhabil Suqutra (Socotra Archipelago), Dhamar, Hadramawt, Hajjah, Ibb, Lahij, Ma'rib, Raymah, Sa'dah, San'a' (Sanaa), Shabwah, Ta'izz"
},
"Independence":{
"text":"22 May 1990 (Republic of Yemen was established with the merger of the Yemen Arab Republic [Yemen (Sanaa) or North Yemen] and the Marxist-dominated People's Democratic Republic of Yemen [Yemen (Aden) or South Yemen]); notable earlier dates: North Yemen became independent on 1 November 1918 (from the Ottoman Empire) and became a republic with the overthrow of the theocratic Imamate on 27 September 1962; South Yemen became independent on 30 November 1967 (from the UK)"
"text":"adopted by referendum 16 May 1991 (following unification); note - after the National Dialogue ended in January 2015, a Constitutional Drafting Committee appointed by the president worked to prepare a new draft constitution that was expected to be put to a national referendum before being adopted; however, the start of the current conflict in early 2015 interrupted the process"
"text":"formerly, the president was directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 7-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 21 February 2012 (next election NA); note - a special election was held on 21 February 2012 to remove Ali Abdallah SALIH under the terms of a Gulf Cooperation Council-mediated deal during the political crisis of 2011; vice president appointed by the president; prime minister appointed by the president"
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> on 7 April 2022, President Abd Rabuh Mansur HADI announced his abdication, the dismissal of Vice President ALI MUHSIN al-Ahmar and the formation of a Presidential Leadership Council, an eight-member body chaired by former minister Rashad AL-ALIMI; on 19 April 2022, the Council was sworn in before Parliament and began assuming the responsibilities of the president and vice president and carrying out the political, security, and military duties of the government"
"note":"note: the last legislative election occurred in 2003, and the six-year term for the House of Representatives expired in 2009. Ongoing instability, beginning in 2011, has since prevented new elections. A new Shura Council was appointed in 2021 and is currently chaired by Dr. Ahmed Obaid bin Dagher (as of Jan 2025)."
},
"Legislative branch - lower chamber":{
"chamber name":{
"text":"House of Representatives (Majlis Annowab)"
},
"number of seats":{
"text":"301 (all directly elected)"
},
"electoral system":{
"text":"plurality/majority"
},
"scope of elections":{
"text":"full renewal"
},
"term in office":{
"text":"6 years"
},
"most recent election date":{
"text":"4/27/2003"
},
"parties elected and seats per party":{
"text":"General People's Congress (GPC) (238); Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah) (46); Other (17)"
"text":"Supreme Court (consists of the court president, 2 deputies, and nearly 50 judges; court organized into constitutional, civil, commercial, family, administrative, criminal, military, and appeals scrutiny divisions)"
},
"judge selection and term of office":{
"text":"judges appointed by the Supreme Judicial Council, which is chaired by the president of the republic and includes 10 high-ranking judicial officers; judges serve for life with mandatory retirement at age 65"
},
"subordinate courts":{
"text":"appeal courts; district or first instance courts; commercial courts"
"text":"General People’s Congress or GPC (3 factions: pro-Hadi, pro-Houthi, pro-Salih)<br>Nasserist Unionist People's Organization<br>National Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party<br>Southern Transitional Council or STC<br>Yemeni Reform Grouping or Islah<br>Yemeni Socialist Party or YSP"
"text":"Ambassador Steven H. FAGIN (since 1 June 2022); note - the embassy closed in March 2015; Yemen Affairs Unit currently operates out of US Embassy Riyadh"
"text":"three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black; the band colors derive from the Arab Liberation flag and represent oppression (black), overcome through bloody struggle (red), to be replaced by a bright future (white)",
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> similar to the flag of Syria, which has two green stars in the white band, and of Iraq, which has an Arabic inscription centered in the white band; also similar to the flag of Egypt, which has a heraldic eagle centered in the white band"
"text":"Old Walled City of Shibam (c); Old City of Sana'a (c); Historic Town of Zabid (c); Socotra Archipelago (n); Landmarks of the Ancient Kingdom of Saba, Marib (c)"
"text":"low-income Middle Eastern economy; infrastructure, trade, and economic institutions devastated by civil war; oil/gas-dependent but decreasing reserves; massive poverty, food insecurity, and unemployment; high inflation"
"text":"crude oil production and petroleum refining; small-scale production of cotton textiles, leather goods; food processing; handicrafts; aluminum products; cement; commercial ship repair; natural gas production"
"text":"Yemen continues to provide an exceptionally challenging market for telcos; civil unrest has caused havoc and devastation across most parts of the country, while the threat of sanctions has also made it a challenging environment in which to operate; a large proportion of the population requires humanitarian assistance, and there is little disposable income for services upon which telcos can generate revenue; essential telecom infrastructure, such as mobile towers and fiber cabling, has often been targeted, destroyed, or damaged by the opposing sides in the ongoing conflict; these difficulties have proved to be a disincentive to telcos investing in infrastructure, with the result that the country lacks basic fixed-line infrastructure, and mobile services are based on outdated GSM; this has prevented the development of a mobile broadband sector, or the evolution of mobile data services; the ownership of telecommunication services, and the scrutiny of associated revenues and taxes, have become a political issue in Yemen; until telecom infrastructure can be improved across Yemen, and until civil unrest eases, there will be little progress for the sector (2022)"
"text":"country code - 967; landing points for the FALCON, SeaMeWe-5, Aden-Djibouti, and the AAE-1 international submarine cable connecting Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Southeast Asia; satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (2 Indian Ocean and 1 Atlantic Ocean), 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region), and 2 Arabsat; microwave radio relay to Saudi Arabia and Djibouti (2020)"
"text":"state-run TV with 2 stations; state-run radio with 2 national radio stations and 5 local stations; stations from Oman and Saudi Arabia can be accessed"
"text":"Republic of Yemen Government (ROYG) forces:<br><br>Ministry of Defense: Yemeni National Army, Air Force and Air Defense, Navy and Coastal Defense Forces, Border Guard, Strategic Reserve Forces (includes Special Forces and Presidential Protection Brigades, which are under the Ministry of Defense but responsible to the president), Popular Committee Forces (aka Popular Resistance Forces; government-backed tribal militia)<br><br>Ministry of Interior: Special Security Forces (paramilitary; formerly known as Central Security Forces), Political Security Organization (state security), National Security Bureau (intelligence), Counterterrorism Unit <br><br>Saudi-backed forces: paramilitary/militia border security brigades based largely on tribal or regional affiliation (based along the Saudi-Yemen border)<br><br>United Arab Emirates-backed forces include tribal and regionally based militia and paramilitary forces (concentrated in the southern governates): Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces, including the Security Belt Forces, the Shabwani and Hadrami “Elite” Forces, the Support and Backup Forces (aka Logistics and Support Forces), Facilities Protection Forces, and Anti-Terrorism Forces; Republican Forces; Joint Forces<br><br>Houthi (aka Ansarallah) forces: land, aerospace (air, missile), naval/coastal defense, presidential protection, special operations, internal security, and militia/tribal auxiliary forces (2023)",
"note":"<strong>note 1: </strong>under the 2019 Riyadh Agreement, the STC forces were to be incorporated into Yemen’s Ministries of Defense and Interior under the authority of the HADI government<strong><br><br>note 2: </strong>a considerable portion--up to 70 percent by some estimates--of Yemen’s military and security forces defected in whole or in part to former president SALAH and the Houthi opposition in 2011-2015"
"text":"information limited and widely varied; Yemen Government: up to 300,000 estimated military, paramilitary, militia, and other security forces; UAE- and Saudi-backed forces: estimated 150-200,000 trained militia and paramilitary fighters; Houthis: up to 200,000 estimated fighters (2022)"
"text":"the Yemeni Government forces have an inventory consisting primarily of Russian and Soviet-era weapons and equipment Houthi forces are armed largely with weapons seized from the Yemeni Government stockpiles, smuggled in from Iran, and manufactured copies of Iranian designs and pre-war Yemeni Government weapons, such as Chinese and Russian missiles (2024)"
"text":"18 is the legal minimum age for voluntary military service; conscription abolished in 2001; 2-year service obligation (note - limited information since the start of the civil war in 2014) (2022)",
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> as late as 2022, all parties to the ongoing conflict were implicated in child soldier recruitment and use; during the beginning of the truce in April 2022, the Houthis signed a plan with the UN to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers; Houthi leaders previously pledged to end the use of child soldiers in 2012, as did the Government of Yemen in 2014"
"text":"government forces under the Yemeni Ministry of Defense are responsible for territorial defense, but also have internal security functions; their main focus has been the Houthi separatists and protecting Yemen’s maritime borders, which are susceptible to smuggling of arms, fighters, and other material support for the Houthis and terrorist groups operating in Yemen, including al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham in Yemen (ISIS-Yemen)<br><br>in 2015, a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states (UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, Kuwait, Jordan and Egypt) intervened militarily in Yemen in support of the Republic of Yemen Government (ROYG) against the separatist Houthis; Saudi military forces conducted operations in Yemen and raised and equipped paramilitary/militia security forces in Yemen based largely on tribal or regional affiliation to deploy along the Saudi-Yemen border; UAE's participation in 2015 included several thousand ground troops, as well as supporting air and naval forces; UAE withdrew its main military force from Yemen in 2019, but has retained a smaller military presence while working with proxies in southern Yemen, most notably the Southern Transitional Council (STC); UAE has recruited, trained, and equipped tens of thousands of Yemeni fighters and formed them into dozens of militia and paramilitary units<br><br>in 2022, the RYOG and the Houthis signed a truce, halting military operations and establishing humanitarian measures; the former front lines of conflict, in some areas mirroring Yemen’s pre -unification borders, remain static; AQAP and ISIS-Yemen have remained active in remote areas<br><br>in January 2024, the US Government designated the Houthis (aka Ansarallah) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group; the designation came after the Houthis began launching attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, as well as military forces positioned in the area to defend the safety and security of commercial shipping (2024)"
"text":"Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)/Qods Force; Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham - Yemen; al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Hizballah",
"note":"<strong>note:</strong> details about the history, aims, leadership, organization, areas of operation, tactics, targets, weapons, size, and sources of support of the group(s) appear(s) in the Terrorism reference guide"
