Half of Yemen is hungry says the WFP

Political instability is to blame for a large precentage of malnurtrition in Yemen. Almost half of all the Yemeni people go hungry according to a new report from the World Food Programme.

The instability began with a revolt against the leadership of Ali Abdullah Saleh a year ago. Saleh still clings to power but it is a weak, as factions of Islamists control outlying parts of the country.

From Reuters Alert Net, writer Andrew Hammond interviewed a spokesman of the World Food Programme about the situation in Yemen.

Forced to import most of its food needs because of a paucity of arable land, Yemen has also suffered from a rise in global food and fuel prices, WFP spokesman Barry Came told Reuters.

"Five million people, or 22 percent of the population, can't feed themselves or buy enough to feed themselves ... These are mostly landless labourers, so they don't grow their own food, and with high food prices they can't buy it either," said Came.

"In addition, there is another five million who are being really hard hit by high food prices and on the edge of being food insecure. So 10 million people in this country go to bed hungry every night."

The number of people receiving daily WFP food rations has risen from 1.2 million in January to over 3.8 million, but poor infrastructure and fear of kidnappings by tribes have complicated the logistics of providing food aid.

"They are really hit by fuel and food price rises ... but there's also political instability, conflict, terrorist activity and huge population displacement," he said. "Without political security and stability you can't solve the problem."

Video: Pitched street battle in Yemeni capital

From Al Jazeera, a video that tells us the latest on pro-democracy protests in Yemen.

Video: Yemen: Saleh Calls for Talks, Protests Continue

From the Associated Press, a video on the continuing political unrest in Yemen.

Video: Violent Clashes Erupt During Yemen Protest

From the Associated Press, a video on protest in Yemen now becoming violent.

Video: Labor Unrest in Egypt, More Yemen Demos

From Associated Press, a video on the unrest in the Middle East.

Tunisian inspired protests spread into Yemen

The government protests continue to spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Tunisia is still in the middle of it as protesters demand more reforms. The rioting in Egypt has entered a second day. Now the protest begin in a new country, this time in Yemen the Middle East's poorest country.

From this Associated Press article that we found at WTEN, we find out more about the opposition demands.

"We will not accept anything less than the president leaving," said independent parliamentarian Ahmed Hashid.

Opposition leaders called for more demonstrations on Friday.

"We'll only be happy when we hear the words 'I understand you' from the president," Hashid said, invoking a statement issued by Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali before he fled the country.

Saleh has tried to defuse simmering tensions by raising salaries for the army and by denying opponents' claims he plans to install his son as his successor.

After the Tunisian turmoil, he ordered income taxes slashed in half and instructed his government to control prices. He deployed anti-riot police and soldiers to several key areas in the capital, Sanaa, and its surroundings to prevent riots.

That hasn't stopped critics of his rule from taking to the streets in days of protests calling for him to step down, a red line that few dissenters had previously dared to cross.

Nearly half of Yemen's population lives below the poverty line of $2 a day and doesn't have access to proper sanitation. Less than a tenth of the roads are paved. Tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes by conflict, flooding the cities.

The government is riddled with corruption, has little control outside the capital, and its main source of income - oil - could run dry in a decade.

Overnight links for December 22nd

The Guardian has a video about early marriage in Ghana. The video profiles a fourteen year-old girl who is about to be taken into marriage. 

Yemen is the recipient of a lot of aid from the U.S. but the aid is given with control of al-Qaida in mind. This Associated Press story that we find at Google News tells us that fighting al-Qaida is a very low priority for Yemen. 


We are approaching the anniversary of the 2004 Christmas tsunami that killed a half a million people. An article from the BBC says that Indonesia's Aceh has made a great recovery, but is still vulnerable to future disasters. 

Children in Yemen fear going to school due to old tribal differences

From IRIN, a story about children in Yemen who fear going to school because of crossing tribal boundaries.

Thousands of children in three of Yemen’s 21 governorates have stopped going to school for fear of being targeted by revenge killings, according to international NGO Partners-Yemen (PY).

PY is running an awareness campaign in the governorates of Al-Jawf, Marib, and Shabwa which run from north to south in central Yemen and where the tribal system is paramount in social and political life. The presence and influence of the official authorities here is still limited.

PY has been getting children in schools that remain open to chant the slogan "To those who deprived me of my father; don't deprive me of my education", but thousands of children have stopped going to school for fear of crossing tribal boundaries.

"I haven't gone to school since 2005 when I was in grade six. I fear that armed tribesmen from Hamdan tribe may kill me," said 17-year-old Salim Yahya of the Al-Shulan tribe in al-Jawf Governorate, which has been in conflict with the Hamdan tribe for 40 years now. Dozens of people in the two tribes have been killed in revenge killings over the past 20 years.

The conflict between the two tribes first broke out in the early 1970s over disputed land, with each tribe claiming ownership. "Now, those plots of lands are no longer a problem. The problem is that of complicated revenge killings that continue to kill thousands of tribesmen and keep children out of school," Sheikh Sultan al-Aradah, a chief mediator in the conflict from the governorate, told IRIN.

Dealing with the conflict at this level is very complicated - even through traditional structures - as tribes consider it a "black shame" to remove the threat of a blood feud from the family or tribe of an individual who has committed murder, said a PY situation analysis paper.

According to Judge Yahya al-Mawri, a member of the Interior Ministry-affiliated supreme national committee for addressing revenge killings, revenge killings in the three governorates claimed the lives of 4,698 people between 1998 and 2008. He could not give a more up-to-date figure as no official records of revenge killings and conflict casualties have been released in the past two years.

The three governorates have a high illiteracy rate: "Fifty-six percent of the male population and 70 percent of the female population… are illiterate," he said.

According to 2009 statistics from the government's Central Statistical Organization, 1.3 million people live in these three governorates where the illiteracy rate is 63 percent, compared to the national average of 41 percent.

Schools closed

Revenge killings have led to the closure of several schools, especially in al-Jawf and Shabwa governorates. The situation is not quite so bad in Marib, said PY.

Abdulhamid Amer, chairperson of local NGO Social Development and Peace Association in al-Jawf Governorate, told IRIN that around 20 schools across the governorate are closed. "As many as eight schools in Maraziq and Al Sayda areas have been closed for five years now," he said, adding that thousands of boys and girls had dropped out of education as a result.

According to Naji al-Sammi, conflict management officer with local NGO Brotherhood Society for Peace and Development in Shabwa Governorate, more than a dozen schools in his governorate have been deserted for several years as a result of revenge killings.

"Al-Nabub School in Nisab District, where around 500 students were enrolled, has been deserted for more than five years now. Few students have moved to other safer areas to complete their education; most have stopped going to school since then," he said.

Mediation efforts

Many former teachers have started mediating between warring tribes: "As our school in Al Sayda District has been deserted for five years now, we found ourselves idle, so we started working as mediators to help end long-standing conflicts, district school teacher Khalid al-Qubati told IRIN.

The carrying of guns is commonplace in the three governorates. "Parents teach their kids how to carry and use guns, as well as how to kill… They don't care about sending them to school," said teacher al-Qubati, who is from the central governorate of Taiz, but works in al-Jawf Governorate.

PY’s awareness campaign is designed to ensure a safe environment for children in school and has reached out to over 50,000 local women in the three governorates to promote girls’ and boys’ education and the need to protect students from revenge killings, Nadwa al-Dawsari, PY executive director, told IRIN.

"Our awareness activities have been well received in communities and that is because we frame them in a way that is appealing to local culture and builds on existing positive traditions," she said.

According to al-Dawsari, the ineffective role of government institutions in these remote tribal areas, extreme poverty, and poor infrastructure are the key challenges facing awareness efforts. "If government institutions were involved, our campaigns could be much more effective," she said.

Large percentage of children work in Yemen

A large percentage of Yemeni children have to find jobs to support their family. Some children are even smuggled across the border into Saudi Arabia because the jobs are better paying there. 40 percent of Yemen children between the ages of seven and thirteen work, some in dangerous jobs.

From this AFP article that we found at the Mail and Guardian, writer Janal Al-Jaberi tells us about a pair of young brothers who are forced to work.

Eleven-year-old Raseel al-Khameri and his eight-year-old mute brother, Anwar, spend their days working in the garage in Sana'a in an attempt to sustain a needy family in the village of al-Akhmoor, 300km south of the capital.

"I work day and night. You'll find me here [in the workshop] anytime from 9am until 4am," Raseel says shyly, as his small hands skilfully work with various car parts.

With an innocent smile never leaving his face, little Anwar closely follows his older brother's moves as he also tries to master the job.

A study carried out in 2010 by the United States-based aid group CHF International revealed that out of Yemen's 11-million children, five million are currently employed.

Three-fifths of those do not receive an education while the remaining two million both study and work at the same time.

CHF said that 40% of Yemeni children are drawn into the labour market between the ages of seven and 13.

CHF said that 80% of those children are involved in hazardous and arduous jobs, while more than 60% use dangerous tools and over 30% said that they were injured or have fallen ill due to their jobs.

New IMF loan to Yemen

The international community has been putting a lot of money into Yemen. This began when an airplane bombing attempt in Detroit was linked back to a growing al-Qaeda cell in Yemen.

The International Monetary Fund just announced that they have made another loan to Yemen. The amount of the loan is 370 million dollars, of which 53 million will be given immediately.

From Bloomberg, writer Camilla Hall tells us more about the loan and why the IMF thinks that Yemen needs it.

Yemen’s government aims to rein in the fiscal deficit to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product while generating annual economic growth of 5 percent, the IMF said. The government is set to introduce a general sales tax and abolish exemptions on tax and customs duties to boost revenue. Tax evasion in Yemen is estimated at 80 percent, according to the Yemen Times newspaper.

“Yemen is confronted with a range of difficult economic challenges related to its heavy dependence on declining oil revenues, widespread poverty, and water shortages,” Naoyuki Shinohara, the fund’s deputy managing director, said in the statement. “The global financial crisis has aggravated these challenges through a reduction in world oil prices, resulting in mounting macroeconomic imbalances.”

Growth may accelerate to 8 percent this year from 3.9 percent last year, with non-oil output increasing 4.4 percent, according to IMF forecasts. The inflation rate may rise to 9.8 percent, the IMF said.

Dengue fever spreading in southern Yemen

From IRIN, a new rash of dengue fever cases are spreading throughout southern Yemen.

Outbreaks of mosquito-borne dengue fever in the southern and eastern governorates of Hadhramaut, Taiz, Aden and Abyan have left dozens dead in the past few months, and are claiming an increasing number of lives, according to officials.

On 13 July, local news website al-Sahwa.net, affiliated with the opposition Islah Party, quoted Rabea al-Abd Ba-Musa, head of the Ministry of Public Health & Population’s office in Hadhramaut Governorate, as saying that dengue was spreading rapidly in various districts of the provincial capital, Mukalla.

Twelve people had died since April and 1,442 people had been infected in Mukalla city, Ba-Musa said. He complained of lack of funds to combat the disease.

Abdulbari Dughaish, a member of parliament (MP) from Aden Governorate, said dozens of slum residents in the governorate had died from dengue over the past few months and more than 150 had been infected.

"I receive calls on a daily basis from patients and relatives of the dead seeking help… Many people died at home as they were unable to cover the cost of treatment in hospitals," he said.

Water shortages meant slum residents stored water in uncovered tanks, he said. “This is a primary factor in the spread of dengue, malaria and other vector-communicated diseases."

Taiz and Abyan

According to a November 2009 survey by the Central Lab of the Republican Hospital in Taiz Governorate, 490,000 people (82 percent of the governorate’s estimated 597,000 urban population) were living in environments that exposed them to dengue infection. The survey said 2,000 people had been infected.

Al-Sahwa.net also reported that hundreds of dengue-infected cases had been discovered in recent weeks in the southern governorate of Abyan; it was suspected that hundreds of other cases had gone undiagnosed.

Dengue fever was first detected in Yemen in the early 1990s and there have been intermittent outbreaks over the years. Common dengue symptoms include high fever, headache, acute pain in the joints and skin rash. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the potentially lethal form of the disease is known as dengue haemorrhagic fever, and causes convulsions, vomiting and bleeding.

There are four primary factors behind the repeated outbreaks of dengue in water-scarce Taiz Governorate, according to Shawqi al-Qadhi, a member of parliament from the governorate: "The fertile environment for mosquito breeding, lack of early diagnosis systems, poor health awareness among citizens and poverty,” he said, adding: "And the poor cannot afford to pay for expensive medicines prescribed by physicians."

He criticized the Public Health Ministry for being unable to curb the epidemic, which most other countries eliminated decades ago.

"The cost of an early diagnosis system is US$9,000-10,000… It’s shameful of the government and its ministry to postpone the provision of such systems from one year to another," al-Qadhi said.

Mixed views on spraying

Lakhdhar Lasour, head of Aden's Public Health Ministry office, said his department had carried out a massive pesticide spraying campaign last month in the governorate's slums.

Attacking the sites of mosquito reproduction was the best way to fight the disease as there was no effective medicine to treat infected people, he told IRIN. "A patient is given only painkillers and fluids until he or she recovers.”

However, Aden MP Dughaish, who is also a member of the parliamentary health committee, said spraying campaigns were inadequate. "It’s possible for spraying to kill flying vectors in the air, but not the Aedes mosquitoes [which causes dengue] in drinking water or inside abandoned vehicle tyres," he said.

Child trafficking dangers in Yemen

From IRIN, a story on child trafficking activities along the Yemen/Saudi Arabia border.

Ali Hassan Salem was 10 when he was trafficked to Saudi Arabia. “When I grew up I did not go to school, but cleaned cars,” he said. Earning very little money in Yemen and having heard of the opportunities in Saudi Arabia, Ali decided to try his luck there.

“No-man’s-land between the borders is a harsh place,” Ali said. “There are wild animals and criminal gangs. I was lucky that nothing happened.”

In Jizan across the border he found work at a construction site. “I didn’t earn much and after expenses for food I only managed to save 200 SAR [US$55],” he said. “It was hard work and the Saudis mistreated us and called us dogs.”

After a month of hard labour and sleeping in an abandoned house with some men from Egypt and Somalia, Ali wanted to go home. “I was scared all the time and I missed my family.”

However, Ali was stopped at the border by Saudi police. “We tried to run away, but we were beaten with belts and batons and I spent three days in a detention centre,” he said.

Today Ali has this advice for any Yemeni children trying to go to Saudi Arabia to find work: “Don’t go. It’s dangerous and many come home damaged.”

However, with growing poverty and a shaky ceasefire in the north, there are fears that child trafficking may increase.

Border patrols

There are no reliable figures on child trafficking from Yemen. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour (MOSAL) says the number of children trafficked to Saudi Arabia are down from 900 in 2008 to 602 in 2009 due to awareness campaigns and collaboration between the Yemeni and Saudi authorities.

However, others say the dip in numbers is due to enhanced Saudi border patrols as a result of the conflict in the north. “If the restrictions [on the borders] are lifted the numbers will go up again,” said Jamal al-Haddi of The Charitable Society for Social Welfare (CSSW), a local NGO.

Mona Ali Salem of MOSAL’s Child Labour Unit worries that when internally displaced persons (IDPs) start returning to their homes in Saada, poverty will force many to put their children to work. “I am worried that children will be sent to work in the big cities and Saudi Arabia,” she said.

According to al-Haddi, child trafficking is linked to poverty. “The economic situation is bad in Yemen… Many have lost their homes and livelihoods because of the war [intermittent fighting between government forces and Houthi-led rebels in the north since 2004],” he said.

A 2008 study by CSSW entitled Situation Analysis of Child Trafficking said 70-80 percent of families interviewed sent their children away because of poverty.

“When people return many will have no choice but to send their children to Saudi Arabia or start smuggling. There is no other work,” said al-Haddi. “In many instances they will rely on their children for money.”

Children exploited

Children are both smuggled into Saudi Arabia to find work, and themselves also smuggle goods across the border, al-Haddi said, adding that while there were no accurate figures, it was estimated that two thirds of children living in the border areas of Harradh were involved in smuggling. While adults can face long prison sentences if caught, children do not.

But it is a dangerous business and often leaves children without much of an education in Yemen. “Many children leave school, as they work at night,” said al-Haddi. “Sometimes the Saudi authorities crack down on smuggling. Often children will try to run away, which results in them sometimes being shot at and wounded or killed,” he said.

On a visit to the Yemeni border village of al-Khadour in 2008, al-Haddi was told there were hundreds of children with disabilities as a result of gunshot wounds or having been hit by Saudi border patrol cars whilst trying to flee.

According to a report by CHF International (a US-based NGO working for “long-lasting positive change in low and moderate income communities around the world”), over 60 percent of children who had worked in Saudi Arabia were exposed to physical abuse, and over 10 percent reported sexual abuse. More than 80 percent of children were pushed by their parents into smuggling.

Education aid

To help reduce trafficking, CHF - in cooperation with CSSW, through their Access Plus Programme - is looking to work with five government schools near the three al-Mazraq IDP camps in Haradh District, Hajjah Governorate, to reach IDP children, as well as children vulnerable to trafficking in host communities.

The plan is to provide primary education for at least 2,000 girls and boys aged 6-14, of whom about 70 percent are IDPs and 30 percent local. There are also plans to provide employment for 500 young people aged 13-17, of whom 30 percent are local and 70 percent IDPs, through informal education and vocational training.

To further help curb and counter child trafficking and smuggling, the UN Children’s Fund is assisting Yarmouk Mazraq School (near the three al-Mazraq IDP camps) where some 1,250 IDP children are currently enrolled. The local authorities have enrolled 299 IDP children in other schools in Haradh District.

More on the end of WFP operations in Yemen

The World Food Programme may soon have to stop operations in Yemen due to a drop of donations from United Nations member countries. This comes at a time with international focus is on the lack of stability in Yemen, and the threat of al-Queda recruiting hungry people.

From Canada.com, this Reuters story describes the situation.

"With the current funding situation, we will have to cease operations by the end of August," said Gian Carlo Cirri, the WFP representative in Yemen, where one in three people suffer from chronic hunger.

"The situation is extremely serious."

The WFP says it would need $75 million to continue operations for the duration of 2010 in impoverished Yemen, which is trying at once to cement a truce with northern rebels, quell separatism in the south and fight a resurgent al-Qaida arm.

Growing instability in Yemen is a major global security concern since a Yemen-based regional arm of al-Qaida claimed responsibility for a failed December attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane.

Western allies and neighbouring Saudi Arabia fear al-Qaida could exploit poverty and chaos in Yemen to use it as a base for destabilizing attacks in the region and beyond.

They want Yemen to resolve its domestic conflicts and consolidate power.

But Yemen, strategically located next door to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia but with fewer resources, is also trying to avert economic disaster for many, including around 350,000 displaced by the northern war, most of whom receive WFP support.

World Food Programme may have to shut down operations in Yemen

The World Food Programme provides food to a half a million people in Yemen. But the WFP says that it may have to suspend operations in the country in August. The WFP says a lack of donations from UN member countries are to blame. Donations have dropped to the WFP since the start of the global economic crisis.

From Reuters, writer Raissa Kasolowsky sheds more light on the WFP troubles.

"With the current funding situation, we will have to cease operations by the end of August," said Gian Carlo Cirri, the WFP representative in Yemen, where one in three people suffer from chronic hunger. "The situation is extremely serious."

The WFP says it would need $75 million to continue operations for the duration of 2010 in impoverished Yemen, which is trying at once to cement a truce with northern rebels, quell separatism in the south and fight a resurgent al Qaeda arm.

Growing instability in Yemen is a major global security concern since a Yemen-based regional arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed December attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane.

Western allies and neighbouring Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda could exploit poverty and chaos in Yemen to use it as a base for destabilising attacks in the region and beyond. They want Yemen to resolve its domestic conflicts and consolidate power.

But Yemen, strategically located next door to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia but with fewer resources, is also trying to avert economic disaster for many, including around 350,000 displaced by the northern war, most of whom receive WFP support.

Meanwhile, donations to the WFP have fallen sharply as the financial crisis continues to dog many donor countries, Cirri said. In addition, many funds were diverted to Haiti after the Caribbean state was hit by a devastating earthquake in January. That has meant Yemen has had to do with less.

Tragedy sheds light on the child brides of Yemen

From NPR, a story on the child brides of Yemen. A tragedy to one such bride may spark a change in law against the practice.

The possible end of WFP food aid in Yemen

The World Food Programme will soon be no longer able to provide food aid to Yemen. Funding shortages will force the WFP to stop operations there in June. A war and an influx of refuges from Somalia give Yemen over three million hungry people.

The WFP says they need 103 million dollars to continue feeding the people in Yemen. The US has given the WFP some money, but not enough to continue operations for too long. Many donors around the world are afraid to give any aid to Yemen, fearing the aid could support the government of Abdullah Ali Saleh.

From Al Jazerra, writer Hugh McLeod talks more about the future of WFP operations in Yemen.

As the international community focuses on defeating al-Qaeda in Yemen, millions of ordinary people in the country on the south-west tip of the Arabian Peninsula are quietly starving as vital deliveries of UN food aid are severely cut due to a lack of funding.

By the end of June 2010, analysts predict, the WPF will have no food to distribute to Yemen's millions of hungry.

There are fears that this will debilitate the nearly one in three Yemenis - over seven million people - who struggle daily to find enough food to live a healthy and productive life, leading to rates of malnutrition that are the third highest in the world.

A recent survey by the WFP estimated that of those going hungry each day, 2.7mn Yemenis are classified as "severely food insecure" meaning they spend one third of their meagre incomes just on bread.

"They are in a total poverty trap," says Gian Carlo Cirri, thw WFP country director.

"Most of the time they are illiterate, they have no access to land or water. The children are not attending school and the probability of having a malnourished child in the family is extremely high."

Yemen economic meltdown leads to extremism

More on how poor economic have led to extremism from IRIN. This story analyzes the factors that have helped rebellion in Yemen.

From the Shiite rebellion in Saada in the north to the surge of secessionist movement in the south and the dangerous alliance forged between tribes and Al-Qaeda in the east, one factor unites analyses of the forces pulling Yemen apart: the failure of its economy.

“In my view, the root cause of all the problems from Saada to secession to Al-Qaeda is poverty,” Abdel Karim Aryani, long-time adviser to Yemen’s president, told IRIN. “No-one gets recruited free of charge. There is a religious appeal, but that only builds on people’s lack of income.”

An international conference in London last week called for “urgent and concrete action” by Yemen to address “conditions conducive to radicalization and instability”.

“The challenges in Yemen are growing and, if not addressed, risk threatening the stability of the country and broader region,” said the closing statement by a coalition of Arab and Western nations, including the UK, the USA and Saudi Arabia.

However, some say the job is made difficult by some daunting economic indicators.

No oil income from 2017?

In 2008, the state budget totalled 1.8 trillion Yemeni rials (about US$8.76 billion), according to Mostafa Nasser, chairman of the Economic Media Centre in Sanaa. Over three-quarters of that came from oil revenues.

Though ministers insist most of Yemen remains unexplored for oil, there have been only limited new discoveries in the past five years and production has fallen from 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2003 to roughly 280,000 bpd at the beginning of 2009. The World Bank estimates that by 2017 the government will earn no income from oil.

According to a September 2009 report by the Carnegie Endowment entitled Yemen: Avoiding a Downward Spiral, half the population, which is set to double in 20 years time, is illiterate and earning less than $2 a day, and unemployment is hovering at around 35 percent.

Some health indicators, such as nearly half of Yemeni children being malnourished, are comparable to Sub-Saharan Africa

Unemployment and Al-Qaeda

Sheikh Abdullah al-Shareef, a tribal leader from the ancient temple city of Marib, 120km east of Sanaa and an operational stronghold for Al-Qaeda, sees a direct link between lack of work and the rise of militancy.

“The local people are jobless and they meet foreign Al-Qaeda who lead them. They say they are following religion, but in fact they are young and unemployed,” he said.

Sheikh Shareef also sees a rise in fundamentalism being driven by privately run religious schools which often fill the space left by inadequate state education.

An Islamic school in Marib established by Abu al-Hassan al-Masri, an Egyptian, continues to teach fundamentalist doctrine to Yemeni and foreign extremists, according to local journalists with knowledge of the school.

“These religious schools have been created to back up the educational system because there is a gap. Politically they have little effect, but personally I believe they increase sectarian ideologies,” said Sheikh Shareef.

Rebellion drains resources

Over the north, opinions vary as to the ideological motivations of the powerful Shiite Houthi clan and their followers whose five-year rebellion against the government in Sanaa has now displaced a quarter of a million people.

Mohammed al-Dahiry, professor of political science at Sanaa University, argues that while the Houthis see themselves as direct descendants of Prophet Mohammed and thus rightful rulers of Yemen, theirs is also a rebellion rooted in economic and social marginalization.

“This is what happens when the government does not do its job. In Saada there is no social development, not enough schools and hospitals. Peaceful opposition is restricted and so it leads to violence,” said Dahiry.

The war against the Houthis has drained resources from an already meagre state budget, with President Saleh warning in August that money for schools was now being used to build trenches for war. Parliament has suspended approval of the 2010 budget until the conflict is over.

Dahiry laid ultimate responsibility for Yemen’s failing state at the door of the international community, blaming the USA and Europe for spending money propping up Saleh’s regime, rather than on progressive development.

Dreaming of jobs

Yet as serious as the war against the Houthis has been, and as deadly as the threat is from Al Qaeda may be, it is the South Yemen secessionist movement which is the single most serious threat to the country’s long-term stability, according to a broad spectrum of Yemeni politicians and analysts.

“Partition will mean a return to war between the north and south every 10 years and war between the people of the south every five years,” said presidential adviser Aryani. “If there is secession, Yemen will become a hotbed of conflict.”

Despite some infrastructure investment and the opening of new schools in the south since unification in 1990 and the end of the civil war in 1994, Aryani and others say the secessionist movement - whose regular mass demonstrations have been fired on by security forces over the past year resulting in at least a dozen deaths - is driven by mass unemployment.

“Every man of 19 today has lived through unification. He never knew how much we all suffered from partition,” said Aryani. “The economic situation makes people think if they secede they will get a job the next day. On the contrary: If he has a chance of a job tomorrow, he will not have it next month.”

Water shortage could further fuel terrorism in Yemen

Much has been made about the Al Qaeda branch in Yemen. There has been some debate on whether poverty has fueled the strength of Al Qaeda in the country or not. However, the shortage of water in Yemen could also help bring more recruits into Al Qaeda. Yemeni government regulation of water is perceived to be full of corruption and inaction by country's residents as supplies shrink and wells go without maintenance.

From Eureka Street, freelance writer James Dorsey looks into water consumption in Yemen.

Without radical reform of agricultural and other policies, the Yemeni capital Sana'a stands in a decade at most to become modern history's first capital to run out of water, according to a recent projection by the World Bank-funded Sana Water Basin Management Project. Rapidly dwindling water resources are likely to lead to disputes, reignite riots against a government already widely viewed as corrupt, nepotistic and incompetent and strengthen Al Qa'ida's Yemeni affiliate, Al Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

One of the world's water poorest nations, Yemen is consuming its limited water resources at a far faster rate than it is able to replenish them. At Yemen's current seven per cent population growth rate, consumption can only increase. Yemen's population is set to almost double from 23 to 40 million over the next two decades.

Alongside unemployment, water is driving increased internal migration and urbanisation. Some 70 per cent of Sana'a's population either buy their water from private vendors or collect free water from local mosques. Vendors sell a liter of water for $0.15, a steep price in a country where incomes average $2 a day. The vendors draw their water from wells near the capital and deliver it in tanker trucks or jerry cans. With no enforced standard for potable water, quality varies.

Water extraction rates in Sana'a are believed to outstrip replenishment by a factor of four. Sana'a's water basin is close to collapse. So is the basin in Amran, 50 km north of Sana'a. Of the 180 wells tapped a decade ago by Sana'a's municipal water company, only 80 remain active. In some districts of the capital, taps have shut down. In others, supply is interrupted at least once a month.

In 2008, the Eurasia Group reported that 19 of Yemen's 21 aquifers were not being replenished and that in some cases non-renewable fossil water was being extracted. Wells in several parts of the country have run dry. The falling water table means wells have to be dug deeper at levels of 200 m and more where the water is contaminated.
...

The water crisis plays into the hands of Al Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula , the Al Qa'ida offshoot that claimed responsibility for the failed Christmas Day bombing of a USA airliner. To compensate for its lack of control in large parts of the country, the government has delegated responsibility for water to local authorities, establishing water companies primarily in urban areas. It is in those tribal areas, like Marib and Shabwa, where no such companies were created that AQAP is strongest.

Economic and political reforms demanded by donors will have to go beyond cost-cutting to incorporate more efficient water use and distribution, pricing to encourage water conservation and development of sustainable agriculture. Without such reforms, water could be at the core of Yemen's next generation of conflict.

International aid flowing into Yemen

A lot has been said about Yemen since the attempted bombing of an airplane by an Yemeni national on Christmas Day. Yemen has a similar poverty situation as most of Africa, yet receives less aid per person than other African countries. Many policy advisers warn the US that they must address the issue of poverty in Yemen instead of simply fighting al-Qaeda.

From Bloomberg News, writer Henry Meyer presents an article full of facts and figures about international aid going into Yemen.

A Western failure to address Yemen’s economic and social weaknesses will exacerbate the threat from al-Qaeda in the poorest Arab nation, said Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen scholar at Princeton University in New Jersey. Yemen gets about one-third the foreign aid accorded to equally poor parts of Asia and Africa on a per capita basis.

“You can’t focus only on killing people and not on what turns them into al-Qaeda supporters,” said Mustafa Alani, a security expert at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center.

About 40 percent of Yemen’s population, which is expected to almost double by 2030 to 40 million, lives on less than $2 a day, says the U.K. Department for International Development. Foreign aid comes to $12 a year for each Yemeni, compared with an average of $33 in African and Asian nations suffering similar levels of poverty, the department says.
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Yemen is in need of development help as the conflict with Muslim Shiite rebels on the border with Saudi Arabia exacerbates its economic troubles. Christopher Boucek, a Yemen expert at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, estimates that the government is spending $200 million a month on the war.

In the province of Amran, refugees have crowded into six schools in one mountain valley near the conflict zone. The 1,200 children have been unable to go to class since September, said Lucienne Maas, country program director for U.K.-based charity Save the Children. More than 175,000 refugees have fled the fighting, according to the United Nations.

In rural areas, in which 70 percent of Yemen’s population lives, only 20 percent of houses get electricity, according to the U.S. Trade Development Agency. Less than half of the rural population has access to clean drinking water.

Water shortage at Somali refugee camps

People who have fled Somalia into the refugee camps in Yemen are experiencing a severe shortage of water. What few wells are available to the camp's inhabitants have mostly become contaminated, so the UN Refugee Agency is trying to clean the wells up.

From the IRIN, we read more about the water crisis.

Public access to water in Basateen, a slum on the outskirts of Yemen’s southern port city of Aden and home to some 16,000 Somali refugees, has become extremely limited, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

The slum’s Somali inhabitants, most of whom if employed do menial jobs, say they have to purchase water from private companies to meet their daily needs.

According to Hadiga Ali Sayid from the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, an international NGO promoting health and providing food and water, many poor refugee families who are unable to buy water rely on charity from local mosques to survive.

“I get 20,000 Yemeni riyals [US$100] a month working as a cleaner, and one load of water from a private company costs 1,500 riyals [about $7.5],” said Amina Mohamed, a Somali refugee who has been living in Basateen for 15 years.

She told IRIN that paying for water is difficult for her and the 20 other members of her extended family living under the same roof. Amina’s uncle, a taxi driver, is the only other income earner in the family. Their house has no public water supply.

In the early 1990s, Yemeni returnees from Somalia and Somali nationals fleeing conflict began to settle in Basateen. A well-irrigated suburb 25 years ago - reflecting its name which means “gardens” in Arabic - Basateen is now a slum and, according to the UNHCR, the poorest district in Aden city.

Josef Mueller, UNHCR’s water and sanitation expert, said access to water in the slum was “limited” both in terms of quantity and quality, and some of the privately owned wells had become polluted with sewage.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and UNHCR are working with the authorities to chlorinate all 18 wells in Basateen to avoid an outbreak of water-borne diseases.

According to the 2006 Human Development Report entitled Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Yemen has one of the world’s lowest freshwater availability levels - 198 cubic metres per person. The country’s population is projected to double by 2025 to some 40 million, and per capita availability of water could fall by a third, the report said.

Water riots

In August 2009, serious water shortages led to riots and the death of one person in Aden, according to local media.

The Yemen Times newspaper, said 75 percent of Aden’s water supply was re-directed to the cities of Zunjubar and Ja’ar three months prior to the riots because of water crises in those cities.

Deputy Director-General of the Aden Water Corporation Saeed H. Qassem blamed the problem on random well digging in the city. “We have constantly raised the matter… but no one would listen and the result is the present situation in Aden,” he was quoted by Yemen Times as saying.

Basateen’s water problems are unlikely to disappear until Aden’s water supply situation is remedied, Mueller said.