Fighting in Yemen escalates

[Heidi]

Source: Los Angeles Times

The government says it killed more than 100 Shiite Muslim rebels in the northwest. Humanitarian groups say 100,000 people have fled their homes.

August 24, 2009


Reporting from Cairo - Fighting in the mountains of northwestern Yemen intensified Sunday as the government announced that it had killed more than 100 Shiite Muslim rebels, and humanitarian organizations voiced alarm over an estimated 100,000 people who have fled their homes since the conflict flared nearly two weeks ago.

The rebels rejected a cease-fire offer from the Sunni Muslim-dominated government at the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan on Friday. The region has since echoed with the fire of artillery, tanks and aircraft as Yemeni forces moved to crush a five-year rebellion led by Shiite militant Abdul Malik Houthi in Saada and Amran provinces.

The fighting near the border with Saudi Arabia was another spasm across an increasingly unstable Yemen, a poor yet strategic country on the Gulf of Aden. U.S. officials are concerned that the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh is engulfed in conflicts that also include a separatist insurgency in the south and growing numbers of Al Qaeda fighters using the nation as a base to launch attacks across the Middle East.

The Shiite revolt in the northwest is unfolding amid Yemen's tricky mix of tribes and clans, and larger regional animosities between Iran's Shiite-led government and its Sunni Arab neighbors. Yemen has intimated that Iran is funneling weapons and money to the rebels. Iran's news media have alleged that Saudi forces have joined Yemeni troops in putting down the rebellion. The Saudis, who worry the unrest may seep across their border, have only publicly acknowledged that the kingdom is consulting with Yemen about the violence.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-yemen-offensive24-2009aug24,0,7903508.story

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Yemen is going to be a nightmare, very soon

The Royal Institute for International Affairs warns that instability there could expand a zone of lawlessness from northern Kenya to Saudi Arabia.
...
The World Bank predicts that Yemen's oil and gas revenues will plummet over the next two years and fall to zero by 2017 as supplies run out.

Given that they provide around 90% of the country's exports, this could be catastrophic.

An unnamed energy expert is quoted in the report as saying that this points to economic collapse within four of five years time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7739402.stm

And its population has doubled in the past 20 years, and is predicted to do so again in the next 40 years:

                                    1989 1999     2009   2019   2029   2039   2049
Midyear population (in thousands) 11,986 16,859 22,858 29,129 34,916 40,375 45,328

source: http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/country.php

And they're running out of water already:

SANAA, 16 August 2009 (IRIN) - Water and sanitation companies in Yemen are adopting unprecedented water rationing in major cities including the capital Sanaa, Taiz, Mukalla, al-Beidha, al-Dhalea and Lahj, local council officials said.

Urgent action is needed to halt depletion of the country’s water resources, Abdulqader Hanash, deputy minister for water affairs, told IRIN. Some 90 percent of available water is used for agriculture, leaving just 10 percent for industrial and household use, he said. Specialists have said before that 40 percent of Yemen’s agricultural water consumption can be attributed to the cultivation of Qat – a mild narcotic plant.

Hanash explained that the ministry was taking steps to stop the proliferation of wells which exacerbated groundwater depletion; it was also helping citizens to switch to less water-dependent produce and farming techniques.

“We expect the international community and donors to provide further funding to allow the ministry to implement its water strategies,” he added.

A report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA) says Yemen is under “serious water stress”.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85734

ADEN, Yemen, Aug 24 (Reuters) - At least one Yemeni was shot dead and three wounded when protesters clashed with police on Sunday in Aden in southern Yemen where several districts have gone days without water, police and witnesses said.

At least two of the wounded were police, the sources said. South Yemen, formerly an independent state that merged with the north in 1990, has seen months of clashes over complaints of marginalisation by central government based in Sanaa.

http://www.reuters.com/article/africaCrisis/idUSLO506927

[ohio2007]

2. ...a pimple on the ass of Saudi Arabia

When is the king going to ask "the west" to intervene ? Meanwhile, his favorite black sheep of the family prince of darkness members continue to spread the wealth of the peaceful ways they demand others to submit under.

[bemildred]

4. "pilonidal cyst" nt

[ohio2007]

5. aka "Taliban on the tailbone" nt

[bemildred]

3. I've been waiting for Saudi Arabia to explode for some time too.

Bleed over into Asir from Yemen could be the spark.