From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Oct 08 2009 - 13:25:09 EDT
Yemen rebels claim control of northern district
08 Oct 2009 10:28:08 GMT
* Shi'ite rebels say they control district bordering Saudi
* UNHCR cancels cross-border aid convoy
(Removes reference to Mubarak in last paragraph)
SANAA, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Zaydi Shi'ite rebels in north Yemen said they had
taken control of a district bordering Saudi Arabia, while a U.N. aid group
cancelled a cross-border humanitarian convoy.
"Citizens took full control of government buildings" in the administrative
district of Munabbih, a rebel statement late on Wednesday said. It said
local residents had turned against the authorities because of rights abuses.
A government security source issued a statement saying the army had killed
62 rebels, referred to as Houthis after their leaders' clan, in mountainous
Saada province where most of the Zaydi Shi'ites, a third of Yemen's 23
million population, live.
There was no official comment on the situation in Munabbih, which borders
Saudi Arabia inside Saada province.
The United States and Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil exporter, fear
that fighting in the north of Yemen, and frequent street clashes with
separatists in the south, could create instability that al Qaeda could
exploit to carry out attacks in Saudi Arabia. It has already staged a
comeback in Yemen in the past two years, with attacks on government and
foreign targets.
The northern Zaydi rebels say they suffer religious discrimination by Sunni
fundamentalists who have gained in strength because of President Ali
Abdullah Saleh's close ties to Saudi Arabia, which adheres to a puritanical
form of Sunni Islam.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) delayed an aid
convoy that was due to set off from Saudi Arabia into Yemen this week. It
was not clear if the delay was due to the rebels seizing the Munabbih area.
A UNHCR official in Riyadh said the convoy, which was to bring aid to 2,000
people stranded near the border, was still waiting for security clearance
from the Saudi and Yemeni sides. Around 150,000 civilians have been
displaced since fighting first broke out in 2004, and international aid
group Oxfam warned last month of an impending humanitarian crisis.
Veteran president Saleh has sought to drum up Arab support for the
government, which launched what it termed "Operation Scorched Earth" in an
attempt to crush the Houthis in August.
Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Tuesday Arab states supported the unity
of Yemen. Tens of thousands of southerners, who want to secede because of
what they call political and economic marginalisation, protested that day
calling for Arab states to protect the south, an independent state until
1990.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul
Gheit and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman met Saleh in Sanaa a few
days before.
(Reporting by Mohamed Ghobari and Ulf Laessing; Writing by Andrew Hammond;
Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Q+A-What are the risks of instability in Yemen?
08 Oct 2009 12:06:07 GMT
Oct 8 (Reuters) - Impoverished Yemen is combating a renewed Shi'ite revolt
in the north, where fighting has raged since the army unleashed "Operation
Scorched Earth" on Aug. 11, as well as separatist unrest in the south and
growing al Qaeda militancy.[ID:nL8152990]
Oil revenue sank to $803 million in the first seven months of this year from
$3.12 billion in the same 2008 period due to lower world prices and a
reduced state share in production.
This makes it even harder for President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government to
cope with widespread poverty, runaway population growth, fast-depleting
water resources and high unemployment.
If Yemen tipped further into instability, or even state failure, this could
endanger its neighbours, especially Saudi Arabia, and complicate efforts to
fight al Qaeda and protect international shipping routes from piracy in the
Gulf of Aden.
Western alarm is growing. In a letter to Saleh in September, U.S. President
Barack Obama said Yemen's security was vital to that of the United States
and the region. He offered to help Yemeni efforts on counter-terrorism,
development and reforms.
Aid agencies warn of a humanitarian crisis in the north, where up to 150,000
people have fled their homes since so-called Houthi Shi'ite tribesmen
launched an insurgency in 2004.
WHO RULES YEMEN?
Saleh, 67, took power in the former North Yemen in 1978 and has been
president since the merger with the south in 1990, winning another
seven-year term in a 2006 election.
The former army officer has dominated Yemen's formal democratic structures
via his northern tribal power base, patronage networks and support in the
armed forces.
Parliament voted in February to delay this year's parliamentary election to
2011 pending electoral reform.
Saleh has no assured successor. He faces multiple challenges in a country
where a central government corroded by corruption exerts scant control in
many areas awash with weaponry.
WHAT LIES BEHIND THE NORTHERN INSURGENCY?
Tribesmen led by the Houthi family began an intermittent revolt against the
government in Saada, near the Saudi border, in 2004. The rebels are
revivalist Zaidis, from a branch of Shi'ite Islam whose Imams ruled Yemen
until the 1962 revolution.
They have economic and religious grievances, accusing Saleh, himself a
Zaidi, of favouring Salafi Sunnis who lean towards Saudi-style Wahhabi
Islam. The Yemeni government has suggested that Iran supports the rebels,
but evidence for this is thin.
Rebel chief Abdul-Malek al-Houthi accepted a Qatari-mediated peace deal in
2007, which repeatedly broke down. Clashes this year escalated to full-scale
battles in late July. Saleh has set tough ceasefire terms, which the Houthis
have rejected.
Aid agencies say the fighting, in which the army has used air power, tanks
and artillery, has displaced tens of thousands of people. The U.N. refugee
agency said last week an already "dire and complex humanitarian emergency"
was getting worse.
WHY ARE SOUTHERNERS DISCONTENTED?
Violence erupted this year after an April 28 opposition rally to mark the
1994 civil war, in which Saleh's forces defeated the secessionist south,
known before the 1990 unity deal as the People's Democratic Republic of
Yemen.
People in the south, home to most of Yemen's oil facilities, have long
complained that northerners abused the unity agreement to grab their
resources and discriminate against them.
Protests led by army officers, riled by their meagre pensions after forced
retirement, turned violent in 2007. As discontent over jobs and other
economic grievances widened, some southern leaders talked of northern
"occupation" and called for secession.
HOW BIG A THREAT IS AL QAEDA?
Yemen, where Osama bin Laden's father was born, has suffered a new wave of
al Qaeda attacks over the past year. Saudi Arabia has said it fears al Qaeda
could use Yemen to relaunch a 2003-6 campaign to topple the U.S.-allied
Saudi royal family.
Yemen issued a list of 38 wanted militants after an al Qaeda suicide bombing
killed four South Korean tourists in March.
Nine foreigners were kidnapped in the northern province of Saada, a rebel
stronghold, in June. Three of them -- two German nurses and a South Korean
teacher -- were found dead. The rest, a German couple, their three children
and a Briton, are missing.
Al Qaeda's Yemen wing changed its name to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
in February, suggesting it aimed to revive the struggle against Saudi
Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter.
Yemen cooperated with Washington after Sept. 11, 2001 and al Qaeda attacks
at home, including one on a U.S. warship. Many Yemenis fought U.S.-led
forces in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
HOW IS YEMEN'S ECONOMY FARING?
Oil production, the source of 70 to 75 percent of public revenue and more
than 90 percent of export earnings, averages 287,000 barrels per day, down
from 300,000 last year and a peak of 457,000 in 2002. Oil revenue dropped
nearly 75 percent in the first seven months of 2009, compared with the same
2008 period.
The Central Bank expects the economy to grow 5 percent this year, below
target due to delays to a $5 billion gas export project. Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) grew only 4.6 percent in 2008, despite high world oil prices
in the first nine months.
The economy is expected to grow 7 or 8 percent in 2010, boosted by liquefied
natural gas exports and an expected jump in projects funded by foreign aid.
The Central Bank says energy subsidies will cost about 6 percent of GDP this
year.
About 35 percent of Yemen's 23 million people live in poverty. The
population is set to double by 2035.
The global financial crisis has slowed inflows of investment and
remittances. The World Bank says medium-term prospects beyond 2009 are poor
due to declining oil output.
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----