Conflict in Yemen causes basic services disruption

Xinhua

July 14, 2012

By Agencies       

Conflict between Yemeni security forces and insurgents in Abyan and the south of Yemen has caused disruption in basic social services of the country, a UN spokesperson said here on Friday.

"The conflict between Yemeni security forces and insurgents in Abyan, and the destruction of infrastructure, such as irrigation channels, power installations, machinery and markets, have destroyed livelihoods of some 200,000 people," UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters here at the daily news briefing.

According to the Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the much needed humanitarian support for an estimated 320,000 people will require an additional 87 million US dollars, to the already received 249 million dollars, for the 2012 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan.

"Sustained and expanded humanitarian action across the south is critical," said Nesirky.

Al-Qaeda Brings the Fight to Yemen’s Capital

The Yemeni army may have successfully rousted AQAP from its strongholds but now the group's operatives have increased their assaults on Sana'a itself

By Sam Kimball / Sana'a | July 12, 2012

The doctor’s trembling hands were still wrapped in blood-stained surgical gloves. Outside the gate of the Yemeni capital’s police academy, Dr. Ahmed Idrees was speaking to a crowd of cameras and microphones about the latest assault on Sana’a. Two hours earlier, an assailant later identified as Mohammed Nasher al-Uthy, 20, hurled an explosive into a crowd of cadets leaving the academy for a weekend at home. Ten were killed and fifteen wounded. Al-Uthy himself lost several limbs in the blast, dying in a hospital an hour after the attack. Noting similarities with an incident in May, Idrees said, “The characteristics of this attack are the same we saw in Saba’een Street.” The suicide attack on Saba’een had been massive: 96 soldiers were killed while rehearsing for a military military parade commemorating Yemen’s unification. In both cases, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Yemen-based franchise of the terrorist organization, claimed responsibility.

After the Yemeni army’s lighting campaign forced Al-Qaeda from its strongholds in the south of the country, AQAP is striking at the heart of the government. Assaults in Sana’a are on the rise. In the space of less than two months, five bombings have been attempted by Al-Qaeda-affiliates. The first was Saba’een Street. Weeks later, a bomber wearing an explosive belt panicked moments before blowing himself up in a post office, throwing his belt over a wall and fleeing. Early this month, Colonel Mohammed Al-Qudami of Yemen’s Political Security was killed by a car bomb as he drove through the capital. Two days later a Sana’a police chief, Saleh Al-Mustafa, watched his car explode minutes after getting out. The police academy is only the latest target in a wave of attacks Al-Qaeda has vowed to keep up.

As Doctor Idrees spoke to the cameras, dazed cadets, forensic specialists, and riot police in body armor were still sidestepping the puddles of blood beginning to blow over with trash. The anger with the new government’s seeming inability to prevent the violence was palpable. Marwan Al-Sabai, a cadet who narrowly escaped the bomb attack, told TIME: “There are Yemenis who carry out these attacks to show that this government is not able to control the country.” Saleh Ali, a soldier, shouted out against the Yemeni government in front of the police academy’s gates: “It’s a failure. A complete failure. We want the intelligence services to arrest criminals like this before they succeed.”

 “If the political situation remains the same, then we are definitely going to witness more and more attacks,” notes Abdullah al-Faqih, a political science professor at Sana’a University. He points out that Yemen’s government remains weak, fragmented by loyalties to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and Ali Muhsin, commander of the 1st Armored Division, which sided with protestors during last year’s uprising. “The new government has no power whatsoever. They’re either with Muhsin or with Saleh.”

Al-Faqih went on to say that attacks like the one targeting police cadets in Yemen’s capital are carried out while security forces turn a blind eye. Pointing to the persistent ambitions of the former president, who was finally forced from office in February after more than three decades in power, Al-Faqih says: “It’s in the interest of Saleh’s camp to convince the international community and regional powers that he’s the only guy who can save this country, and keep it relatively stable.”

Arafat Mudabish, editor of Al-Tagheer Net news website, agrees. “Sana’a remains divided among followers of Ali Abdullah Saleh, Brigadier Ali Muhsin Al Ahmar, and Sheikh Sadeq Al Ahmar”–another notable in last year’s uprising and the head of an influential tribal group. Mudabish said that each of these figures use the attacks to discredit forces loyal to the other, or to instill a sense that they are the only player capable of saving Yemen from the Al-Qaeda threat.

Troubled by pending reforms threatening their interests, the factions spin the assaults on government personnel to distract both the international community and Yemen’s new president, Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. In the past, critics often accused Saleh of allowing Al-Qaeda and its affiliates to carry out attacks and claim territory in Yemen in a desperate bid to divert attention from the popular uprising that eventually forced him from the presidency.

The trick hasn’t lost its appeal, some say. A Yemeni journalist specializing in military and security issues, who asked to go by the alias Ahmed, notes that the restructuring of the armed forces, a key tenet of the power transfer deal that ushered in the Hadi government, poses a threat to the powers of Saleh, Muhsin, and others. “In order to distract the President from the army restructuring, they make him busy with attacks,” Ahmed says.

According to Al-Tagheer Net’s Mudabish, the only way to bring stability to the volatile country is through international pressure, especially from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, Yemen’s powerful neighbor. Without a concerted international effort, the outlook is bleak. Ahmed says grimly, “If the situation remains as it is, Al Qaeda will walk right into the presidential palace.”

Yemen factions invited to national dialogue: UN envoy

 (AFP)

July 13, 2012

SANAA — The UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, said on Friday that southern separatists and northern Shiite rebels have been invited to participate in a national dialogue set for November.

"Contacts have been made with all the parties, including the Southern Movement and the Huthis (Zaidis), to join the national dialogue and there is now agreement to begin the preparatory phase," Benomar said at the end of a two-week visit.

A dialogue aimed at facilitating political transition in Yemen was envisioned in the agreement that led to long-time president Ali Abdullah Saleh stepping down in February after months of deadly street protests.

The Southern Movement groups activists pushing for greater autonomy for the south and those who want full independence for the region, which was a separate state until 1990.

Asked about its participation, Benomar said several factions had accepted the invitation, while presenting specific demands which he did not reveal.

However, he said the faction led by former vice president Ali Salem al-Baid, a southern leader, has refused to participate, but that contacts are still underway.

Yemen's mountainous north is a stronghold of the Zaidi Shiites, who from 2004 fought six wars with central government forces before signing a truce in February 2010. The rebellion claimed thousands of lives.

Benomar said the political process under Saleh's successor, President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, has "made a lot of progress" but that there "are still obstacles and challenges."

Key among them are a restructuring of the military, which was divided during the year-long popular uprising to unseat Saleh, and the campaign against Al-Qaeda, which is heavily active in the south.

UN Yemen envoy: Militants disrupting political process

July 12, 2012

Al-Qaeda-linked militants are disrupting Yemen's political situation and could harm global security, the UN envoy there has warned.

Speaking to the BBC, Jemal Benomar said insurgents were trying to disrupt efforts to strengthen the government.

He made the remarks a day after a suicide attack in the capital Sanaa killed 10 police cadets.

Mr Benomar warned that global security could be affected if the international community did not support Yemen.

Since Ali Abdullah Saleh stood down as president last year, Islamist militants have taken advantage of the instability resulting from the popular uprising that forced him out.

In May, more than 90 soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber dressed in army uniform blew himself up during a parade rehearsal in Sanaa.

Ansar al-Sharia, an offshoot of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said it had carried out that attack - the deadliest in the capital since Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi was elected president in February.

No group has come forward to claim responsibility for Wednesday's attack, but suspicion has fallen on Ansar al-Sharia.

After becoming president, Mr Hadi said one of his most important tasks was the continuation of the war on al-Qaeda and he instructed the military to regain control of several key towns in the southern province of Abyan.

Last month, the army recaptured the provincial capital Zinjibar after a campaign which left hundreds of militants and dozens of soldiers dead.

In Yemen, Little Relief for Hunger

By EVA SOHLMAN

July 11, 2012

SANA, YEMEN — Odai Saleh’s large, hollow eyes follow the movements around him lethargically and his emaciated, birdlike face expresses no interest in the toy car next to him on the hospital bed.

Nearly 5 years old, Odai weighs a mere 10 kilograms, or 22 pounds. A few weeks ago he was brought to the therapeutic feeding clinic at Sabeen Hospital here in Sana, the capital, suffering from severe malnutrition. He had been sick for weeks with vomiting and diarrhea despite treatment in Hamdan, his home village.

 “Malnourished children like Odai are so fragile, they are like glass,” said Rajia Sharhan, a pediatrician and nutrition specialist with Unicef, describing the young victims of the worsening food shortage in Yemen. Unicef, which supports the clinic, has scaled up its nutrition intervention program in Yemen over the last three months.

Odai is fortunate. Unlike many Yemenis, he is getting help and recovering; but aid agencies warn that the crisis in Yemen is turning into a catastrophe.

The international community has been slow in its response, and concerns are growing that the country’s already tenuous democratic prospects may be at risk unless the transitional government receives more foreign assistance in meeting people’s essential needs.

 “It’s worse than we had thought,” said Jamal Benomar, the United Nations envoy to Yemen. “The latest figures for Yemen are not far from the situation in Sahel in Africa or Afghanistan, but unfortunately this is not attracting attention from the world.”

Hunger in Yemen — the poorest country in the Middle East — has doubled since 2009, according to the World Food Program. The ability of families to feed their children has deteriorated significantly in the last year as food and fuel prices have soared amid the political turmoil and economic activity has ground to a near halt.

About 10 million Yemenis, or 44 percent of the population, no longer have enough to eat, and 5 million are in need of urgent emergency aid, according to a report from the World Food Program in May. Over a quarter of a million children are so malnourished that they risk dying, and nearly half of all children under 5 years old are chronically malnourished, putting their physical and mental development at risk, the report said.

Some 90 percent of Yemenis have been affected by higher food and fuel prices, the report said, and the situation is expected to stay difficult because the country depends on international food markets, where prices remain high.

Other contributing factors include a lack of clean drinking water, high unemployment and poverty. Nearly half the population lives below the poverty line of $2 a day.

While there is still food in the markets, there are signs that supplies are shrinking, the World Food Program said. The country’s agricultural potential is limited by water shortages and the cultivation and consumption of qat, a water-intensive plant producing the mild narcotic leaf that Yemenis like to chew.

For households in urban areas, the breakdown in law and order has made it harder to get food.

Under a deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council last November, Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to end his 33-year presidential rule and allow for a peaceful democratic transition, following street protests and international pressure. But Mr. Saleh and his allies have challenged the new president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, creating tension in the capital and curbing chances of finding a way out of intertribal and clan rivalries that have led to street battles and hampered the transition to democracy.

Conflicts in the north and south of the country have aggravated the situation, particularly in the south, where militants linked to Al Qaeda expanded their presence during last year’s chaos. At least 95,000 people were forced to leave their homes as a result of conflicts this spring — bringing the number of internally displaced refugees to more than half a million, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Many Yemenis have run out of options. Families talk of skipping meals for several days, pulling their children out of school to beg in the streets and selling whatever they can to survive. More than one third of households have a food-related debt, and one quarter of all food is now bought with borrowed money, the World Food Program said.

Ibrahim Sharqieh, deputy director of the Brookings Doha Center, who recently visited the country, said people were talking openly about starvation.

 “The fact that tribal leaders were mentioning it to me I find alarming,” Mr. Sharqieh said, “because it means it’s part of the Yemeni consciousness now.”

Confronting this growing desperation, Yemenis, aid agencies and analysts say the cautious response of international donors is inadequate and their demands for better security are unrealistic.

A meeting of the Friends of Yemen in Riyadh in May pledged $4 billion in humanitarian aid, of which $3.25 billion was promised by Saudi Arabia. But promises are one thing, delivery another: Only 46 percent of a U.N. humanitarian appeal for about $450 million in December has been financed.

With conditions worsening, the United Nations is increasing its appeal. The target will soon be raised by 25 to 30 percent and probably even more in coming months, officials said.

But it is unclear where the money will come from. A major donor conference late last month was postponed and may not happen until September.

 “Nothing is happening right now, that’s the most alarming,” said Mr. Sharqieh, who said international donors “almost only focus on security and politics” without paying enough attention to the humanitarian and economic situation.

Penny Lawrence, the international director of Oxfam, rejected arguments that the difficult security situation made it impossible to distribute aid or that the country was incapable of absorbing it.

 “The aid can get out directly,” Ms. Lawrence said, echoing assessments by workers at Unicef, Save the Children and smaller aid agencies, who say they rely on local networks to reach the most dangerous and remote parts of the country.

She said the international community should focus on direct cash distribution to people because the core problem was not a lack of food, but money.

There are fears that Mr. Hadi could lose hearts and minds over the crisis, which would have dangerous implications. So far he has had some success in restructuring the military and pushing back against militants linked to Al Qaeda. But he has failed to deliver basic services like clean water, electricity and humanitarian assistance.

 “His performance on it is zero,” Mr. Sharqieh of Brookings said.

That failure could undermine the Gulf-brokered political deal for a transition to a more popularly based regime.

 “He doesn’t have much time,” Mr. Sharqieh said. “His credibility will erode in the capital and political stability is at risk unless he starts delivering soon.”