North Yemen became independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1918. The British who had set up a protectorate area around the southern port of Aden in the 19th century withdrew in 1967 from what became South Yemen. Three years later the southern government adopted a Marxist orientation. 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 and brief civil war in 1994 was quickly subdued. In 2000 Saudi Arabia and Yemen agreed to delineate their border. Fighting in the northwest between the government and the Huthis a Zaydi Shia Muslim minority continued intermittently from 2004 to 2010. The southern secessionist movement was revitalized in 2007.
Public rallies in Sana'a against then President SALIH - inspired by similar demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt - slowly built momentum starting in late January 2011 fueled by complaints over high unemployment poor economic conditions and corruption. By the following month some protests had resulted in violence and the demonstrations had spread to other major cities. By March the opposition had hardened its demands and was unifying behind calls for SALIH's immediate ouster. In April 2011 the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in an attempt to mediate the crisis in Yemen proposed the GGC Initiative an agreement in which the president would step down in exchange for immunity from prosecution. SALIH's refusal to sign an agreement led to further violence. The UN Security Council passed Resolution 2014 in October 2011 calling for an end to the violence and completing a power transfer deal. In November 2011 SALIH signed the GCC Initiative to step down and to transfer some of his powers to Vice President Abd Rabuh Mansur HADI. Following HADI's uncontested election victory in February 2012 SALIH formally transferred his powers. In accordance with the GCC initiative Yemen launched a National Dialogue Conference (NDC) in March 2013 to discuss key constitutional political and social issues. HADI concluded the NDC in January 2014 and planned to begin implementing subsequent steps in the transition process including constitutional drafting a constitutional referendum and national elections.
The Huthis perceiving their grievances were not addressed in the NDC joined forces with SALIH and expanded their influence in northwestern Yemen culminating in a major offensive against military units and rival tribes and enabling their forces to overrun the capital Sanaa in September 2014. In January 2015 the Huthis surrounded the presidential palace HADI's residence and key government facilities prompting HADI and the cabinet to submit their resignations. HADI fled to Aden in February 2015 and rescinded his resignation. He subsequently escaped to Oman and then moved to Saudi Arabia and asked the GCC to intervene militarily in Yemen to protect the legitimate government from the Huthis. In March Saudi Arabia assembled a coalition of Arab militaries and began airstrikes against the Huthis and Huthi-affiliated forces. Ground fighting between Huthi-aligned forces and resistance groups backed by the Saudi-led coalition continued through 2016. In 2016 the UN brokered a months-long cessation of hostilities that reduced airstrikes and fighting and initiated peace talks in Kuwait. However the talks ended without agreement. The Huthis and SALIH’s political party announced a Supreme Political Council in August 2016 and a National Salvation Government including a prime minister and several dozen cabinet members in November 2016 to govern in Sanaa and further challenge the legitimacy of HADI’s government. Further attempts at peace have failed while neither side has made decisive battlefield gains perpetuating the conflict and deepening the divisions between northern and southern Yemen. Amid rising tensions between the Huthis and SALIH sporadic clashes erupted in mid-2017 and Huthi forces killed SALIH in early December 2017.

arable land: 2.2%
permanent crops: 0.6%
permanent pasture: 41.7%

21.4 years
median age at first birth among women 25-29 (2013 est.)

urban: 72% of population
rural: 46.5% of population
total: 54.9% of population
urban: 28% of population
rural: 53.5% of population
total: 45.1% of population (2012 est.)

urban: 92.5% of population
rural: 34.1% of population
total: 53.3% of population
urban: 7.5% of population
rural: 65.9% of population
total: 46.7% of population (2012 est.)

General People's Congress or GPC [Sadiq Abu RAS]
National Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party [Qassem Salam SAID]
Nasserist Unionist People's Organization [Abdulmalik al-MEKHLAFI]
Yemeni Reform Grouping or Islah [Muhammed Abdallah al-YADUMI]
Yemeni Socialist Party or YSP [Dr. Abd al-Rahman Umar al-SAQQAF]

Yemen is a low-income country that faces difficult long-term challenges to stabilizing and growing its economy and the current conflict has only exacerbated those issues. The ongoing war has halted Yemen’s exports pressured the currency’s exchange rate accelerated inflation severely limited food and fuel imports and caused widespread damage to infrastructure. More than 80% of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance and over half are food insecure.
Prior to the start of the conflict in 2014 Yemen was highly dependent on declining oil and gas resources for revenue. Oil and gas earnings accounted for roughly 25% of GDP and 65% of government revenue. The Yemeni Government regularly faced annual budget shortfalls and tried to diversify the Yemeni economy through a reform program designed to bolster non-oil sectors of the economy and foreign investment. In July 2014 the government continued reform efforts by eliminating some fuel subsidies and in August 2014 the IMF approved a three-year $570 million Extended Credit Facility for Yemen.
However the conflict that began in 2014 stalled these reform efforts and ongoing fighting continues to accelerate the country’s economic decline. In September 2016 President HADI announced the move of the main branch of Central Bank of Yemen from Sanaa to Aden where his government could exert greater control over the central bank’s dwindling resources. Regardless of which group controls the main branch the central bank system is struggling to function. Yemen’s Central Bank’s foreign reserves which stood at roughly $5.2 billion prior to the conflict have declined to negligible amounts. The Central Bank can no longer fully support imports of critical goods or the country’s exchange rate. The country also is facing a growing liquidity crisis and rising inflation. The private sector is hemorrhaging with almost all businesses making substantial layoffs. Access to food and other critical commodities such as medical equipment is limited across the country due to security issues on the ground. The Social Welfare Fund a cash transfer program for Yemen’s neediest is no longer operational and has not made any disbursements since late 2014.
Yemen will require significant international assistance during and after the protracted conflict to stabilize its economy. Long-term challenges include a high population growth rate high unemployment declining water resources and severe food scarcity.

$68.95 billion (2017 est.)
$70.37 billion (2016 est.)
$78 billion (2015 est.)

-2% (2017 est.)
-9.8% (2016 est.)
-28.1% (2015 est.)

$2,300 (2017 est.)
$2,400 (2016 est.)
$2,800 (2015 est.)

0.1% of GDP (2017 est.)
-4.1% of GDP (2016 est.)
-3.7% of GDP (2015 est.)

27% (2014 est.)
35% (2003 est.)

37.9 (2009 est.)
37.3 (1999 est.)

135.5% of GDP (2017 est.)
119.1% of GDP (2016 est.)

20% (2017 est.)
5% (2016 est.)

26% (31 December 2017 est.)
27% (31 December 2016 est.)

$5.542 billion (31 December 2017 est.)
$6.718 billion (31 December 2016 est.)

$9.338 billion (31 December 2017 est.)
$11.95 billion (31 December 2016 est.)

$3.706 billion (31 December 2017 est.)
$4.515 billion (31 December 2016 est.)

-$579 million (2017 est.)
-$1.532 billion (2016 est.)

$501.2 million (2017 est.)
$163.6 million (2016 est.)

$4.573 billion (2017 est.)
$3.117 billion (2016 est.)

$245.1 million (31 December 2017 est.)
$592.6 million (31 December 2016 est.)

$7.252 billion (31 December 2017 est.)
$7.181 billion (31 December 2016 est.)

Yemeni rials (YER) per US dollar -
275 (2017 est.)
214.9 (2016 est.)
214.9 (2015 est.)
228 (2014 est.)
214.89 (2013 est.)

3.97% of GDP (2014)
4.08% of GDP (2013)
4.57% of GDP (2012)
4.93% of GDP (2011)

aim(s): overthrow the Yemen Government and ultimately establish a regional Islamic caliphate; eradicate Western influence and presence from Yemen and the rest of the Arabian Peninsula
area(s) of operation: a core al-Qa'ida affiliate that was headquartered in Al Mukalla Hadramawt Governorate until Yemeni forces and their allies drove AQAP from the city in April 2016; most active in southern eastern and central Yemen especially in Abyan Al Baydah Hadramawt Sabwah and Ma'rib governorates; conducts ongoing attacks against Yemeni Government forces officials and facilities and Western embassies diplomats tourists and Shia Muslims oil facilities and merchant ships as well as Western and Saudi Arabian interests; assessed in 2015 to have up to 4,000 members

aim(s): overthrow the Yemen Government and ultimately establish a pan-Islamic caliphate under a strict Salafi Muslim interpretation of Sharia
area(s) of operation: operational throughout Yemen in collaboration with its affiliate organization al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)
aim(s): replace the Yemen Government with an Islamic state and implement ISIL's strict interpretation of Sharia
area(s) of operation: operational primarily in 'Adan and the capital Sanaa where operatives conduct attacks against Shia Muslims and government facilities and personnel; claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack in to 'Adan where a suicide bomber detonated a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device on 29 August 2016 killing approximately 70 new recruits standing in line to register to join the military; suicide bombers detonated explosives on 20 March 2015 inside two Shia Muslim mosques in Sanaa killing at least 137 worshippers and injuring over 300 which marked the first attack ISIL had claimed in Yemen; actively recruits Sunni Muslim youths; ISIL refers to Yemen as its Wilayat Sanaa; ISIL-Yemen was placed in the US State Department's designated global terror category under Executive Order 13,224 on 19 May 2016