Yemen

Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in southern Arabia, the country includes the Socotra Archipelago and borders Saudi Arabia to the north, Oman to the northeast, the Arabian Sea to the east, the Gulf of Aden to the south, and the Red Sea to the west. It also shares maritime borders with Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia across the Horn of Africa. Covering 455,503 square kilometres (175,871 sq mi), with a coastline of approximately 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi), Yemen is the second-largest country on the Arabian Peninsula by area and the second-largest by population. Sanaa is its constitutional capital and largest city. Yemen's population is estimated at 34.7 million, predominantly Arab Muslims. Owing to its geographic location, Yemen has been at the crossroads of many civilizations for over 7,000 years. The Sabaeans formed a thriving commercial kingdom that influenced parts of modern Ethiopia and Eritrea. In AD 275, it was succeeded by the Himyarite Kingdom, which spanned much of Yemen's present-day territory and was heavily influenced by Judaism. Christianity arrived in the fourth century, followed by the rapid spread of Islam in the seventh century. From its conversion to Islam, Yemen became a center of Islamic learning, and Yemenite troops played a crucial role in early Islamic conquests. For centuries, it was a primary producer of coffee, exported through the port of Mocha. Various dynasties emerged between the ninth and sixteenth centuries. During the 19th century, the country was divided between the Ottoman and British empires. After World War I, the Kingdom of Yemen was established, which in 1962 became the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) following the North Yemen civil war. In 1967, the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) gained independence from the British Aden Protectorate, becoming the first and only communist state in the Middle East. In 1990, the two Yemeni states united to form the modern Republic of Yemen, with Ali Abdullah Saleh serving as the first president until his resignation in 2012 in the wake of the Arab Spring. Since 2011, Yemen has been enduring a political crisis, marked by street protests against poverty, unemployment, corruption, and President Saleh's plan to amend Yemen's constitution. By 2015, the country became engulfed in an ongoing civil war with multiple entities vying for governance, including the Presidential Leadership Council of the internationally recognized government and the Houthi movement's Supreme Political Council. This conflict has led to a severe humanitarian crisis. Yemen is one of the least developed countries in the world, facing significant obstacles to sustainable development, and is one of the poorest countries in the Middle East and North Africa. In 2019, the United Nations reported that Yemen had the highest number of people in need of humanitarian aid, amounting to about 24 million individuals, or nearly 75% of its population. It is a member of the Arab League, the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.