Yearbook 2017
 Yemen. At the beginning of the year, the UN Children's
Fund UNICEF reported that nearly 1,400 children had been
killed in the Yemen conflict between the Saudi-led military
alliance and the Huthir bells. The UN calls the country's
conflict the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world: 7,000
people have died since 2015, 3 million are on the run and 20
million are suffering from famine or are in need of
humanitarian aid. According to UNICEF, in November, 11
million children in Yemen were in dire need of humanitarian
aid. Of these, 2 million were severely malnourished. Add to
that the cholera epidemic that hit the country in the
spring. By the end of the summer, more than 500,000 had
fallen ill and nearly 2,000 had died in the suites of
intestinal disease. In August, the World Health Organization
(WHO) reported on 5,000 new cases each day.
Recurring reports of boat refugees along the Yemeni coast
tell of great tragedy: in March, more than 40 Somali
refugees were killed when their boat was subjected to a
helicopter attack, and in August some 60 migrants died after
being pushed out of the boats.
According to
Countryaah.com, Yemen was also hit by US President Donald Trump's entry
ban when the country and six other Muslim states were
stopped in January for entry into the United States.
Saudi Arabia closed the border with Yemen in early
November after the Yemeni rebels fired a missile at the
Saudi capital Riyadh; however, the missile could be shot
down. The reason for the closure was said to be the desire
to stop Iranian weapons supplies to the Huthirbels. After
two weeks, the border was reopened so that relief could
reach the starving civilian population.
On December 4, Yemen's former President Ali Abdullah
Saleh was killed in the capital Sana in connection with an
escape attempt. He was very likely on his way to Saudi
Arabia Yemen to open up talks with the Saudi-led coalition
when he was killed by his former allies, the Huhira rebels.
With his death there is a very high risk of escalation of
the conflict. And quite rightly: just a few hours later,
ex-President Abd Rabbuh Mansur al-Hadi urged his compatriots
to stand up to the huhirebells.
Yemen's older history
Yemen was known as an ancient Arab cultural kingdom
already ca. 1200 BCE The country's location at the entrance
to the Red Sea has given ancient and modern times a very
important strategic position. In ancient times, Yemen
controlled the deliveries of important goods such as spices,
incense and myrrh. Because of its fertility and its
well-developed agriculture as well as its commercial wealth,
Yemen in classic times became known as Arabia Felix
(happy Arabia), and the country was then one of the richest
in the world.
Two of the best known kingdoms in the area were the
mines' kingdom (c. 1100 – c. 600 BCE) and Saba (c. 950 – c.
115 BCE). In the 100th century before our time, the heavens
took power. From the 20th century, the area was under Aksum,
in today's Ethiopia; in 525, Yemen was conquered by
Ethiopians, who in 575 were displaced by the Persian
Sasanids.
In the 600s, Yemen transitioned to Islam and came under
the supremacy of the Caliphate. From the 8th century the
country was ruled by local dynasties and imams, until in
1517 it was occupied by Ottoman forces. This occupation
lasted formally until the fall of the Ottoman Empire in
1918. The Ottoman occupation of Yemen was not least caused
by the Portuguese attack on Aden in 1513 and the fear of
Portuguese rule over the holy sites of Islam in the Arabian
Peninsula. An Ottoman ruler was deployed to San'aand ruled
in the name most of historic Yemen, but in reality had
little control over the country, which was ruled by local
rulers, one of the most important being the Sultan of Lahaj.
There were repeated revolts against the Turkish government,
not least from the Zaidi clan; the most comprehensive of
these was led by imam Yahya in 1904. 100,000 Ottoman
soldiers sent to Yemen, unsuccessful in fighting the
uprising, which ended in 1911 after a peace settlement. A
direction in Islam, Zaidi, is still prevalent in parts of
Yemen.
The port city of Aden already played an important role in
the trade with India from ancient times, but after the
discovery of the sea route there the importance was reduced.
After Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798, the port city
became more strategically interesting for Britain, which
occupied the island of Perim in 1799. In 1839, a force from
India invaded Aden, which was incorporated into the British
Empire, ruled from Bombay (Mumbai); control was then taken
over by the Governor General of India from 1932.
The Sultan of Aden signed a peace treaty with Britain in
1857, after Aden had become a free port in 1853. The
importance of Aden became even greater after the opening of
the Suez Canal in 1869, and the British signed agreements
with a number of local rulers who accepted British
protection. An Ottoman attempt to conquer Aden in 1915 was
halted, and in 1937 the city gained the status of a British
crown colony. The areas that made up later South Yemen were
called respectively. the eastern and western Aden
Protectorate and each consisted of a number of Sheikhs and
Sultanates. Developments in the two Yemeni states were in
many ways different, but both were characterized by strong
social and political contradictions, both internally and
between the two states. |
