Recently in Yemen Category

By Kawkab al-Thaibani in Sanaa
Basam al-Haidari is 26-years-old,. He has little education but dreamed of supporting his big extended family - ten siblings, five of whom are deaf.

Instead of leading his family to security al-Haidari has walked himself into a death sentence.

Last April, al-Haidari was behind the bars of the Specialized Criminal Court of Appeals when he heard the Judge confirm the death sentence, for a crime committed while messing around on the internet.

He was sentenced to death for offering to spy for Israel.

Hafez Ibrahim was 16 when he attended a wedding in his home town of Ta'izz. Everyone was in high spirits and most of the men were armed. At some point, the celebrations boiled over, a struggle broke out, a gun went off and someone was killed.
 

Mazrak refugee camp in the tough mountainous scrublands of Yemen's north-west border with Saudi Arabia is now home to more than 10,000 people displaced by the escalating war between the government and rebels from the Huthi clan. A man displaced by the war between Huthi rebels and government forces walks with his camel through a refugee camp at Mazrak, north-west Yemen. Photo: Hugh Macleod / IRIN

Yemen briefly became a US obsession, when the 'underpants bomber' was arrested over Christmas. Now it has fallen off the map, but the anti-insurgency effort continues to displace civilians as these photos from Hugh McLeod and others at IRIN reveal:

...but possibly not the kind you're thinking of Tom Friedman has dropped in on the troubled country for his latest column. Here's a flavor:

Al Qaeda is like a virus. When it appears en masse, it indicates something is wrong with a country's immune system. And something is wrong with Yemen's. A weak central government in Sana rules over a patchwork of rural tribes, using an ad hoc system of patronage, co-optation, corruption and force. Vast areas of the countryside remain outside government control, particularly in the south and east, where 300 to 500 Qaeda fighters have found sanctuary.

Now read the rest at the New York Times

U.S. military teams and intelligence agencies are deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops despite the open revolt by tribal leaders against foreign interference.

In the past six weeks, Yemeni forces have killed scores of people, among them six of 15 top leaders of a regional al-Qaeda affiliate, according to senior American officials.

But tribal leaders incuding prominent sheiks, and members of Yemen's parliament gathered Tuesday to stress their opposition to any foreign military intervention in the country.

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Tea, sympathy, but no politics, please. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein for The New York Times

:A number of journalists have been sentenced to months in jail for merely criticising Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh in print. The latest incident was Anisa Othman, an outspoken female Yemeni journalist for Al Wasat newspaper. She was sentenced last Sunday to three months in jail due for two critical articles about Saleh. The lawsuit was filed by the Ministry of Information at the newly-established "press court".

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The US and international community are suddenly focusing on the threat from al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, the Yemeni military is facing a secessionist movement in the south and battling Houthi rebels in the north. In some sense, the Yemeni government and the United States have divergent goals, because, "as long as the Yemeni military is engaged in fighting a civil war, they aren't engaged in fighting al-Qaeda," notes Christopher Boucek of the Carnegie Middle East Program. Ultimately, the United States and Yemen must work together "to address long term issues like education and the economy," and not just short term counterterrorism activities, to ensure Yemen's security and stability. Avoiding a spiral into chaos

The editor-in-chief and managing editor of the independent Yemen daily Al-Ayyam were arrested on the third day of a government siege of the compound that houses the paper's offices in Aden. Security forces entered Al-Ayyam's offices and took into custody both Editor Hisham Bashraheel and his son, Hani Bashraheel, managing editor, according to local news reports and Samia al-Aghraby, chairwoman of the Freedoms Committee of the Yemeni Journalists' Syndicate. The prosecutor's office ordered the arrest, the same sources reported, although the charges have not been made public or been told to the editors' family. According to Mohammed al-Amrawi, lawyer for Al-Ayyam, both journalists were flown to the capital, Sana'a.

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As the war on Al Qaida moves to Yemen thousands have been displaced by conflict in just a few months The latest round of fighting erupted in the north of Yemen. five months ago and it is becoming increasingly difficult for Red Cross and UN humanitarian aid workers to reach those in need. The sole aim of many civilians is simply to survive amid the ongoing conflict. Tens of thousands in Sa'ada, Amran and other areas had no choice but to endure horrid din of war and the rigours of freezing winter.