Yemen

Yemen Background

North Yemen became independent of 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 in 1994 was quickly subdued. In 2000, Saudi Arabia and Yemen agreed to a delimitation of their border.

Yemen Information

• Population: 20,024,867 (July 2004 est.)
• Nationality: noun: Yemeni(s) adjective: Yemeni
• Location:: Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Red Sea, between Oman and Saudi Arabia
• Religions:: Muslim including Shaf'i (Sunni) and Zaydi (Shi'a), small numbers of Jewish, Christian, and Hindu
• Ethnic Groups:: predominantly Arab; but also Afro-Arab, South Asians, Europeans
• Land Boundaries:: total: 1,746 km border countries: Oman 288 km, Saudi Arabia 1,458 km
• Area: total: 527,970 sq km land: 527,970 sq km note: includes Perim, Socotra, the former Yemen Arab Republic (YAR or North Yemen), and the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY or South Yemen) water: 0 sq km
• Coast Line: 1,906 km
• Climate: mostly desert; hot and humid along west coast; temperate in western mountains affected by seasonal monsoon; extraordinarily hot, dry, harsh desert in east
• Terrain: narrow coastal plain backed by flat-topped hills and rugged mountains; dissected upland desert plains in center slope into the desert interior of the Arabian Peninsula
• Maritime Claims: territorial sea: 12 nm continental shelf: 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin contiguous zone: 24 nm exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
• Land Use: arable land: 2.78% permanent crops: 0.24% other: 96.98% (2001)
• Environmental Issues: very limited natural fresh water resources; inadequate supplies of potable water; overgrazing; soil erosion; desertification
• Natural Resources: petroleum, fish, rock salt, marble, small deposits of coal, gold, lead, nickel, and copper, fertile soil in west
• Highways: total: 67,000 km paved: 7,705 km unpaved: 59,295 km (1999 est.)
• Railways:
• Ports & Harbours: Aden, Al Hudaydah, Al Mukalla, As Salif, Ras Issa, Mocha, Nishtun
• Airports: 44 (2003 est.)