By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press
Friday, December 9, 2011
SANAA, Yemen (AP) --A Yemeni security official says a prison riot in Sanaa has left two inmates dead and three guards injured.
The official says a Friday demonstration by inmates of a prison in the Yemeni capital against poor treatment turned violent, after police tried to disperse the crowd using water cannons and tear gas.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country demanding that outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh be put on trial.
Saleh was guaranteed immunity from prosecution as part of a U.S.-backed deal signed last month, which allows him to step down after 33 years in power.
Subscribe To
Posts
All Comments
Friday, December 9, 2011
Rival Yemeni forces quit streets of Taiz, official
Mohammed Ghobari, Reuters December 9, 2011
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni forces loyal to outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh and opposition gunmen are withdrawing from the streets of Taiz city, an official said on Friday.
Dozens have been killed in Taiz, Yemen's commercial capital, since Saleh signed a deal last month to give up power. Months of anti-government protests have pushed the impoverished country to the brink of civil war.
The official said a committee set up to restore normality to Taiz was clearing away road blocks set up by Saleh opponents and loyalists during street battles, and overseeing their withdrawal from occupied buildings.
Protesters continue to take to the streets in anger at the opposition parties' endorsement of the power transfer deal, which grants immunity from prosecution to Saleh over the killing of demonstrators by security forces.
Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party said it would stop holding pro-government rallies after Friday prayers to show its commitment to a political solution.
"The decision by the party's leadership is a new sign of the GPC's eager desire to act in the higher interest of the nation and to begin ending the political crisis," said a statement from the party that urged opposition parties to do the same.
A member of the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) said it was not for them to call off street protests.
"We in the JMP do not have the authority to cancel protests and sit-ins. It's the youth movement that controls the protesters," the assistant secretary-general of the socialist party told Reuters.
Under the transfer plan negotiated by Yemen's wealthy Gulf neighbours, the GPC and opposition parties divide up cabinet posts between them and form a national unity government to steer the country ahead of a presidential election in February.
The cabinet, which is due to be sworn in on Saturday, faces a host of challenges including a southern separatist movement, a rebellion in the north and a regional wing of al Qaeda that has exploited the upheaval to strengthen its foothold in Yemen.
Neighbouring Saudi Arabia and the United States, both targets of foiled attacks by al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, fear the global militant network could use a security vacuum to plot and perhaps carry out attacks on the region and beyond.
The interior ministry said it was making arrangements for the United Nations envoy who helped broker the power transfer deal to visit the north and south of the country, where central government control has been severely weakened.
Opposition leader Mohammed Basindwa, who is now prime minister, said his first foreign visit would be to oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to ask for urgent support for Yemen's fuel and electricity needs.
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni forces loyal to outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh and opposition gunmen are withdrawing from the streets of Taiz city, an official said on Friday.
Dozens have been killed in Taiz, Yemen's commercial capital, since Saleh signed a deal last month to give up power. Months of anti-government protests have pushed the impoverished country to the brink of civil war.
The official said a committee set up to restore normality to Taiz was clearing away road blocks set up by Saleh opponents and loyalists during street battles, and overseeing their withdrawal from occupied buildings.
Protesters continue to take to the streets in anger at the opposition parties' endorsement of the power transfer deal, which grants immunity from prosecution to Saleh over the killing of demonstrators by security forces.
Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party said it would stop holding pro-government rallies after Friday prayers to show its commitment to a political solution.
"The decision by the party's leadership is a new sign of the GPC's eager desire to act in the higher interest of the nation and to begin ending the political crisis," said a statement from the party that urged opposition parties to do the same.
A member of the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) said it was not for them to call off street protests.
"We in the JMP do not have the authority to cancel protests and sit-ins. It's the youth movement that controls the protesters," the assistant secretary-general of the socialist party told Reuters.
Under the transfer plan negotiated by Yemen's wealthy Gulf neighbours, the GPC and opposition parties divide up cabinet posts between them and form a national unity government to steer the country ahead of a presidential election in February.
The cabinet, which is due to be sworn in on Saturday, faces a host of challenges including a southern separatist movement, a rebellion in the north and a regional wing of al Qaeda that has exploited the upheaval to strengthen its foothold in Yemen.
Neighbouring Saudi Arabia and the United States, both targets of foiled attacks by al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, fear the global militant network could use a security vacuum to plot and perhaps carry out attacks on the region and beyond.
The interior ministry said it was making arrangements for the United Nations envoy who helped broker the power transfer deal to visit the north and south of the country, where central government control has been severely weakened.
Opposition leader Mohammed Basindwa, who is now prime minister, said his first foreign visit would be to oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to ask for urgent support for Yemen's fuel and electricity needs.
Seven die as clashes erupt in northern Yemen
Dec 9, 2011
Sana'a - At least seven people were killed when clashes escalated in northern Yemen between Houthi rebels and Islamists, media reported Friday.
Houthis, a Shiite Muslim minority in Yemen, opened fire on a convoy late Thursday which was said to be carrying food and medicines for besieged Salafists in the area of Dammaj.
The Shiite group reportedly believed the convoy was carrying weapons for their rivals.
At least three Houthis and four Salafists were killed in the clashes, the Yemen Post wrote on its website.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Shiite group, said the convoy was intended to provoke confrontations between the two groups.
Authorities in the province have been trying to broker an end to the dispute that has raged intermittently for more than two months. However, repeated clashes have broken short-lived truces in Sa'ada province.
Houthis accuse the Salafists of planning to build military encampments to extend their influence.
The dispute, which began some months ago, has been overshadowed by political tensions gripping the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country since February, over the disputed rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Sana'a - At least seven people were killed when clashes escalated in northern Yemen between Houthi rebels and Islamists, media reported Friday.
Houthis, a Shiite Muslim minority in Yemen, opened fire on a convoy late Thursday which was said to be carrying food and medicines for besieged Salafists in the area of Dammaj.
The Shiite group reportedly believed the convoy was carrying weapons for their rivals.
At least three Houthis and four Salafists were killed in the clashes, the Yemen Post wrote on its website.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Shiite group, said the convoy was intended to provoke confrontations between the two groups.
Authorities in the province have been trying to broker an end to the dispute that has raged intermittently for more than two months. However, repeated clashes have broken short-lived truces in Sa'ada province.
Houthis accuse the Salafists of planning to build military encampments to extend their influence.
The dispute, which began some months ago, has been overshadowed by political tensions gripping the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country since February, over the disputed rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Osama bin Laden's wives told they are free to leave Pakistan
Bin Laden's Saudi-born wives to return home seven months after raid that killed their husband, while his Yemeni spouse may be offered new home in Qatar
Jason Burke in Delhi
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 December 2011
Two wives of Osama bin Laden, held in Pakistan after the raid in May that killed their husband, are set to return to their homeland of Saudi Arabia, Pakistani officials have said.
A third wife will not travel back to her native land, Yemen, after authorities refused to accept her but may instead be offered a new home in Qatar, the Gulf emirate, a source in the Pakistani interior ministry told the Guardian.
All three women were detained by Pakistani military personnel after the American special forces raid on a house in the northern Pakistani city of Abbottabad during which Bin Laden was killed. Around a dozen children were also taken into Pakistani custody. According to the officials and Saudi press reports, the two Saudi-born wives, Khairiah Sabar and Siham Sabar, recently had their Saudi citizenship restored, a move which would allow their return, possibly as early as next week.
Khairiah married Bin Laden in 1985 and Siham, in 1987. When the extremist leader was stripped of his citizenship in 1994, the two women, both college graduates, also lost theirs.
With an official Pakistani inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the raid now complete, the women were free to go, the Pakistani officials said.
"We have been working with the Saudi officials since the [Pakistani] Judicial Commission on [the Abbottabad raid] interviewed the Bin Laden widows.
"The Saudi government has agreed to accept his children and two wives, and we are working on logistical arrangements now," one senior source said, requesting anonymity.
Eight children of the late al-Qaida leader would travel with the women, the official added.
Middle Eastern diplomats in Islamabad confirmed that a "resolution" had been reached in discussions over the repatriation of the wives but did not disclose any timetable.
However, there been no official confirmation from Riyadh, and the Saudi ambassador in Pakistan has told local reporters he has no knowledge of any forthcoming transfer.
Western officials in the region urged caution.
"Let's wait and see. It's likely they will go back [to Saudi Arabia] at some stage but it may well not be imminent," said one.
Recent Saudi press reports have claimed that authorities had restored the citizenship of the two women, both born in the southern port city of Jeddah, after members of their families and that of their late husband lobbied senior Saudi royals.
Jeddah is also the home town of the Bin Laden family and is where Osama, who was 54 when he died, was raised.
Officials in Riyadh told the Guardian earlier this year that, at least theoretically, there was no objection to the women's return to Saudi Arabia.
Hamza, the 22-year-old son of Bin Laden, was killed in the May raid.
The bodies of both men were buried at sea. The women and children were handcuffed by the US special forces who then left the scene.
During their detention by Pakistani authorities the women, one of whom was wounded in the Abbottabad raid, were interviewed by American intelligence agencies.
The three wives had spent up to five years living in relatively austere conditions in the house in the northern Pakistani town.
Pictures of their home showed modest furnishings, cheap foam mattresses, no air conditioning and old televisions though there was a large, seemingly well-tended, vegetable garden.
Bin Laden married at least five times. His first wife, a Syrian, left him in Afghanistan weeks before the 9/11 attacks and returned to her homeland. A second wife was divorced in the early 1990s. His fifth wife, Yemeni Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, married him in 2000.
This leaves the third and fourth wives, the two Saudis.
According to local or Arab traditions, it should be the close relatives of a dead father, usually the brothers, who look after the bereaved spouses and children.
It appears that despite the rift between Bin Laden and his family, one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest business dynasties, some efforts have been made to take care of the widows.
At least two of Bin Laden's sons – Hamza and Saad – apparently followed him into radicalism. Both were groomed as extremist leaders from an early age. Bin Laden had told interviewers that he hoped his daughter Safiya, now believed to be 12, would also take up arms.
She is still in Pakistani custody and has said that she witnessed her father being shot dead, senior Pakistani officials told the Guardian days after the raid.
Jason Burke in Delhi
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 December 2011
Two wives of Osama bin Laden, held in Pakistan after the raid in May that killed their husband, are set to return to their homeland of Saudi Arabia, Pakistani officials have said.
A third wife will not travel back to her native land, Yemen, after authorities refused to accept her but may instead be offered a new home in Qatar, the Gulf emirate, a source in the Pakistani interior ministry told the Guardian.
All three women were detained by Pakistani military personnel after the American special forces raid on a house in the northern Pakistani city of Abbottabad during which Bin Laden was killed. Around a dozen children were also taken into Pakistani custody. According to the officials and Saudi press reports, the two Saudi-born wives, Khairiah Sabar and Siham Sabar, recently had their Saudi citizenship restored, a move which would allow their return, possibly as early as next week.
Khairiah married Bin Laden in 1985 and Siham, in 1987. When the extremist leader was stripped of his citizenship in 1994, the two women, both college graduates, also lost theirs.
With an official Pakistani inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the raid now complete, the women were free to go, the Pakistani officials said.
"We have been working with the Saudi officials since the [Pakistani] Judicial Commission on [the Abbottabad raid] interviewed the Bin Laden widows.
"The Saudi government has agreed to accept his children and two wives, and we are working on logistical arrangements now," one senior source said, requesting anonymity.
Eight children of the late al-Qaida leader would travel with the women, the official added.
Middle Eastern diplomats in Islamabad confirmed that a "resolution" had been reached in discussions over the repatriation of the wives but did not disclose any timetable.
However, there been no official confirmation from Riyadh, and the Saudi ambassador in Pakistan has told local reporters he has no knowledge of any forthcoming transfer.
Western officials in the region urged caution.
"Let's wait and see. It's likely they will go back [to Saudi Arabia] at some stage but it may well not be imminent," said one.
Recent Saudi press reports have claimed that authorities had restored the citizenship of the two women, both born in the southern port city of Jeddah, after members of their families and that of their late husband lobbied senior Saudi royals.
Jeddah is also the home town of the Bin Laden family and is where Osama, who was 54 when he died, was raised.
Officials in Riyadh told the Guardian earlier this year that, at least theoretically, there was no objection to the women's return to Saudi Arabia.
Hamza, the 22-year-old son of Bin Laden, was killed in the May raid.
The bodies of both men were buried at sea. The women and children were handcuffed by the US special forces who then left the scene.
During their detention by Pakistani authorities the women, one of whom was wounded in the Abbottabad raid, were interviewed by American intelligence agencies.
The three wives had spent up to five years living in relatively austere conditions in the house in the northern Pakistani town.
Pictures of their home showed modest furnishings, cheap foam mattresses, no air conditioning and old televisions though there was a large, seemingly well-tended, vegetable garden.
Bin Laden married at least five times. His first wife, a Syrian, left him in Afghanistan weeks before the 9/11 attacks and returned to her homeland. A second wife was divorced in the early 1990s. His fifth wife, Yemeni Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, married him in 2000.
This leaves the third and fourth wives, the two Saudis.
According to local or Arab traditions, it should be the close relatives of a dead father, usually the brothers, who look after the bereaved spouses and children.
It appears that despite the rift between Bin Laden and his family, one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest business dynasties, some efforts have been made to take care of the widows.
At least two of Bin Laden's sons – Hamza and Saad – apparently followed him into radicalism. Both were groomed as extremist leaders from an early age. Bin Laden had told interviewers that he hoped his daughter Safiya, now believed to be 12, would also take up arms.
She is still in Pakistani custody and has said that she witnessed her father being shot dead, senior Pakistani officials told the Guardian days after the raid.
Yemen: Al-Qaeda-Linked Militants Attack Army, 10 Killed
Dec 8, 2011
SANAA, Yemen -- Militants linked to al-Qaida attacked an army post in an embattled southern province of Yemen but were driven back, leaving nine of their dead behind, officials said Thursday.
The security official said that one soldier was also killed in the Wednesday night firefight east of the town of Zinjibar in Abyan province.
Militants overran Zinjibar in May, shortly after a 10-month-old uprising against authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh caused a breakdown of authority throughout the country.
The military patched up a temporary alliance with mutinous anti-Saleh units and fought their way back into the town in June, but have yet to establish full control and regularly clash with the Islamists.
Saleh late last month signed a U.S.-backed agreement in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, under which he is expected to step down by the end of this year.
Despite its potential to end the violence, many Yemenis reject the power transfer deal because it leaves much of the regime in place and offers the outgoing president immunity from prosecution.
Tens of thousands of Yemenis rallied in the capital Sanaa and several other cities calling for President Saleh to face trial for alleged corruption and killing of protesters.
Incoming Prime Minister Mohammed Basindwa announced on Wednesday that he had formed a national unity government composed both of Saleh allies and opponents to take over control of ministries.
But military units throughout the country remain divided in their loyalties. Some back Saleh or his family or other regime figures, and others are allied with his rivals in the powerful al-Ahmar clan or with other opposition forces.
The splits in Yemen's government and military provide a window of opportunity for al-Qaida, which has long had bases in the country, to continue to contest control of Abyan province and other territories.
A medic at a military hospital in the nearby city of Aden confirmed Wednesday's attack, and said that four wounded soldiers were under treatment. Both he and the security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media.
Meanwhile, two independent Yemeni websites said that the government had released the leader of a prominent south Yemeni secessionist movement who had been detained since February.
NewsYemen and Change said that Hassan Baoum, 71, of the Supreme Council for the Peaceful Southern Movement, walked free along with his son shortly after Basindwa's government was formed.
South Yemen was once a separate country plagued by deadly conflicts among groups vying for power. It merged with North Yemen under Saleh in 1990 but most of the people feel that they were unfairly treated by the northerners
SANAA, Yemen -- Militants linked to al-Qaida attacked an army post in an embattled southern province of Yemen but were driven back, leaving nine of their dead behind, officials said Thursday.
The security official said that one soldier was also killed in the Wednesday night firefight east of the town of Zinjibar in Abyan province.
Militants overran Zinjibar in May, shortly after a 10-month-old uprising against authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh caused a breakdown of authority throughout the country.
The military patched up a temporary alliance with mutinous anti-Saleh units and fought their way back into the town in June, but have yet to establish full control and regularly clash with the Islamists.
Saleh late last month signed a U.S.-backed agreement in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, under which he is expected to step down by the end of this year.
Despite its potential to end the violence, many Yemenis reject the power transfer deal because it leaves much of the regime in place and offers the outgoing president immunity from prosecution.
Tens of thousands of Yemenis rallied in the capital Sanaa and several other cities calling for President Saleh to face trial for alleged corruption and killing of protesters.
Incoming Prime Minister Mohammed Basindwa announced on Wednesday that he had formed a national unity government composed both of Saleh allies and opponents to take over control of ministries.
But military units throughout the country remain divided in their loyalties. Some back Saleh or his family or other regime figures, and others are allied with his rivals in the powerful al-Ahmar clan or with other opposition forces.
The splits in Yemen's government and military provide a window of opportunity for al-Qaida, which has long had bases in the country, to continue to contest control of Abyan province and other territories.
A medic at a military hospital in the nearby city of Aden confirmed Wednesday's attack, and said that four wounded soldiers were under treatment. Both he and the security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media.
Meanwhile, two independent Yemeni websites said that the government had released the leader of a prominent south Yemeni secessionist movement who had been detained since February.
NewsYemen and Change said that Hassan Baoum, 71, of the Supreme Council for the Peaceful Southern Movement, walked free along with his son shortly after Basindwa's government was formed.
South Yemen was once a separate country plagued by deadly conflicts among groups vying for power. It merged with North Yemen under Saleh in 1990 but most of the people feel that they were unfairly treated by the northerners
Analysis: New Yemeni government hostage to military standoff
Thu Dec 8, 2011
By Joseph Logan
DUBAI (Reuters) - A new Yemeni government tasked with charting a political path away from civil war looks doomed from the start by dependence on the warlords it is supposed to tame, and is tainted in the eyes of protesters at the heart of the uprising.
The government, formed on Wednesday under a deal overseen by neighboring oil giant Saudi Arabia, is to lead Yemen to a February presidential election to replace Ali Abdullah Saleh, after 10 months of protests against his three-decade rule.
Its goal is to stop Yemen sliding toward chaos by finding a negotiated end to the fighting that has raged on alongside protests -- between military units loyal to Saleh, units that have turned on him, and tribal militias committed to his demise.
That may create a government in which Saleh's opponents would have to share formal authority with his loyalists -- but without the military clout of the men they would effectively be trying to disarm.
"You have two tracks: a political one that progresses and sets a date for elections and forms a government, and a parallel, military track," said Ibrahim Sharqieh, a conflict resolution expert at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar.
"Those two are going to collide, and I think the moment is if the issue of restructuring military units actually becomes real, when it comes to Ahmed and his cousin staying in power or not," he said. "That's when they will have to face reality."
He was referring to Saleh's son Ahmed Ali Saleh, and nephew Yehia Mohamed Abdullah Saleh, who lead the Republican Guards and Central Security Forces, respectively.
COMPROMISE AND APPEASEMENT
The political process began last month, when Saleh formally renounced his powers in line with the pact sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a bloc of Yemen's neighbors richer, resource-blessed neighbors.
The agreement -- which Saleh had previously wriggled out of three times at the last moment -- stipulates an early presidential election that the deputy to whom Saleh transferred his powers, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, will enter with the backing of Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party.
By the time of the vote, a military committee -- with half its members, like the interim government, loyal to Saleh -- is supposed to have defused conflicts that have raged in the last week in the capital Sanaa and Taiz between pro-Saleh forces and those of tribal leader Sadeq al-Ahmar and General Ali Mohsen, both former allies of Saleh who have turned against him.
The role that body and the government grant pro-Saleh forces all but ensure the irrelevance of a political process, argued historian and commentator on Yemeni affairs Fawwaz Traboulsi.
"How is it possible to make the armed forces neutral, keep them from interfering in the transitional period, and unify them to ensure that process is peaceful, while the 'outgoing' president controls the greater part of the armed forces?" he wrote in the Assafir daily after Saleh agreed to the GCC deal.
Deprived of effective authority, the best-case scenario may be that an interim government muddles through to a vote without a major eruption of violence.
"Many of the characters who were appointed are far less competent than the ones who preceded them," said Yemeni political analyst Abdulghani al-Iryani.
"What we've seen is a hodgepodge of compromise and appeasement that produced an ineffective cabinet."
"The most you could hope for from this cabinet is that they create the conditions for peaceful presidential elections in two and half a months. I do not think they are capable of doing anything more substantive."
YOUTH PROTESTERS
One faction of Yemenis was unrepresented in the deal-making that concluded in the Saudi capital, but it is acknowledged as a new force that emerged in the uprising against Saleh.
The movement has dismissed a national unity government long before it was born.
Youth protesters who have spent nearly a year in the streets have broadened their demands for political change beyond Saleh, calling for the removal of Yemen's entire political elite.
They regard the military struggle in Yemen as a feud among partners to what they see as the crimes of Saleh's rule, deeming the formal opposition complicit for taking part in a deal that grants him immunity from prosecution over the killing of protesters by security forces.
"You cannot say it (the government) will work independently of Saleh, without completely cleansing the leadership of the military of all of his relatives," said Mani' al-Matari, a 28-year-old protest organizer in the capital. "The military is running things in this country, not a government."
That sentiment, said Sharqieh, illustrates the greatest failing of a government yet to be sworn in.
"They (the political opposition) have never acknowledged and involved the youth who were not involved in the agreement and have in fact denounced it all along," he said. "There is a question of legitimacy, and on this they don't have it."
By Joseph Logan
DUBAI (Reuters) - A new Yemeni government tasked with charting a political path away from civil war looks doomed from the start by dependence on the warlords it is supposed to tame, and is tainted in the eyes of protesters at the heart of the uprising.
The government, formed on Wednesday under a deal overseen by neighboring oil giant Saudi Arabia, is to lead Yemen to a February presidential election to replace Ali Abdullah Saleh, after 10 months of protests against his three-decade rule.
Its goal is to stop Yemen sliding toward chaos by finding a negotiated end to the fighting that has raged on alongside protests -- between military units loyal to Saleh, units that have turned on him, and tribal militias committed to his demise.
That may create a government in which Saleh's opponents would have to share formal authority with his loyalists -- but without the military clout of the men they would effectively be trying to disarm.
"You have two tracks: a political one that progresses and sets a date for elections and forms a government, and a parallel, military track," said Ibrahim Sharqieh, a conflict resolution expert at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar.
"Those two are going to collide, and I think the moment is if the issue of restructuring military units actually becomes real, when it comes to Ahmed and his cousin staying in power or not," he said. "That's when they will have to face reality."
He was referring to Saleh's son Ahmed Ali Saleh, and nephew Yehia Mohamed Abdullah Saleh, who lead the Republican Guards and Central Security Forces, respectively.
COMPROMISE AND APPEASEMENT
The political process began last month, when Saleh formally renounced his powers in line with the pact sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a bloc of Yemen's neighbors richer, resource-blessed neighbors.
The agreement -- which Saleh had previously wriggled out of three times at the last moment -- stipulates an early presidential election that the deputy to whom Saleh transferred his powers, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, will enter with the backing of Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party.
By the time of the vote, a military committee -- with half its members, like the interim government, loyal to Saleh -- is supposed to have defused conflicts that have raged in the last week in the capital Sanaa and Taiz between pro-Saleh forces and those of tribal leader Sadeq al-Ahmar and General Ali Mohsen, both former allies of Saleh who have turned against him.
The role that body and the government grant pro-Saleh forces all but ensure the irrelevance of a political process, argued historian and commentator on Yemeni affairs Fawwaz Traboulsi.
"How is it possible to make the armed forces neutral, keep them from interfering in the transitional period, and unify them to ensure that process is peaceful, while the 'outgoing' president controls the greater part of the armed forces?" he wrote in the Assafir daily after Saleh agreed to the GCC deal.
Deprived of effective authority, the best-case scenario may be that an interim government muddles through to a vote without a major eruption of violence.
"Many of the characters who were appointed are far less competent than the ones who preceded them," said Yemeni political analyst Abdulghani al-Iryani.
"What we've seen is a hodgepodge of compromise and appeasement that produced an ineffective cabinet."
"The most you could hope for from this cabinet is that they create the conditions for peaceful presidential elections in two and half a months. I do not think they are capable of doing anything more substantive."
YOUTH PROTESTERS
One faction of Yemenis was unrepresented in the deal-making that concluded in the Saudi capital, but it is acknowledged as a new force that emerged in the uprising against Saleh.
The movement has dismissed a national unity government long before it was born.
Youth protesters who have spent nearly a year in the streets have broadened their demands for political change beyond Saleh, calling for the removal of Yemen's entire political elite.
They regard the military struggle in Yemen as a feud among partners to what they see as the crimes of Saleh's rule, deeming the formal opposition complicit for taking part in a deal that grants him immunity from prosecution over the killing of protesters by security forces.
"You cannot say it (the government) will work independently of Saleh, without completely cleansing the leadership of the military of all of his relatives," said Mani' al-Matari, a 28-year-old protest organizer in the capital. "The military is running things in this country, not a government."
That sentiment, said Sharqieh, illustrates the greatest failing of a government yet to be sworn in.
"They (the political opposition) have never acknowledged and involved the youth who were not involved in the agreement and have in fact denounced it all along," he said. "There is a question of legitimacy, and on this they don't have it."
Yemen's new unity government
SANAA, Dec 08, 2011 (AFP) - Yemen's prime minister designate has unveiled a new unity government as stipulated in the Gulf Cooperation Council deal to transfer power from President Ali Abdullah Saleh to his deputy Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.
The 34-member cabinet is divided equally among Saleh loyalists from the ruling General People's Congress (GPC) and the formal opposition Common Forum.
Saleh's ministers for foreign affairs and defence have retained their posts.
The interior ministry, the human rights portfolio, finance and information ministries have been entrusted to the opposition.
The new government will carry out its duties for three months, after which elections will be held and Vice President Hadi will formally take over the presidency.
Following is a list of the new Yemen cabinet:
-Prime Minister: Mohammed Basindawa (Opposition leader)
-Foreign Minister: Abu Bakr al-Qourbi (GPC)
-Defence Minister: Mohammed Nasser Ahmed (GPC)
-Interior Minister: Abdelqader Qahtan (Opposition)
-Justice Minister: Morshed Ali al-Arshani (Opposition)
-Finance Minister: Sakhr Ahmed Abbas (Opposition)
-Information Minister: Ali Ahmed al-Amrani (Opposition)
-Health Minister: Ahmed Qasem al-Ansi (GPC)
-Minister for Human Rights: Houriya Mashhour Ahmed (Opposition)
-Agriculture and Irrigation Minister: Farid Ahmed al-Moujawar (GPC)
-Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research: Yahya Mohammed al-Shoueibi (GPC)
-Religious Affairs Minister: Hammoud Mohammed al-Abad (GPC)
-Labour and Social Affairs Minister: Amat al-Razzaq Hamad (GPC)
-Public Works Minister: Omar Abdullah al-Korshami (GPC)
-Electricity Minister: Saleh Hasan Sami (Opposition)
-Petroleum and Minerals Minister: Hisham Sharaf Abdullah (GPC- former minister of trade and industry)
-Minister of Planning and International Cooperation: Mohammed Said al-Saadi (Opposition- Islamic Islah party)
-Telecommunications Minister: Ahmed Obeif bin Dagher (GPC)
-Education Minister: Abdelrazzaq Yahya al-Ashwal (Opposition)
-Legal Affairs Minister: Mohammed Ahmed al-Makhlafi (Opposition)
-Tourism Minister: Qasim Salam (Saleh loyalist)
-Water and Environment Minister: Abdo Razaz Saleh Khaled (Opposition)
-Culture Minister: Abdullah Manthouq (Opposition)
-Minister of Transport: Waed Abdullah Batheeb (Opposition)
-Minister of Trade and Industry: Saad Eddine Ali Salem bin Taleb (Opposition)
-Minister for Expatriate Affairs: al-Qahali (GPC)
-Minister of Vocational Training: Abdel Hafeth Thabet Noman (Opposition)
-Minister of Local Government Affairs: Ali Mohammed al-Yazidi (Opposition)
-Youth and Sports Minister: Moammar al-Iryani (GPC)
-Civil Services Minsiter: Nabil Abdo Shamsan (GPC)
-Minister for Fishing Resources: Awad Mohammed Saqtari (GPC- former electricity minister)
-Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs: Rashad Ahmed Rasas (GPC)
-Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs: Jawhara Hammoud Thabet (Opposition)
-Minister of State (without portfolio) Shaef Aziz Sagheer (GPC)
-Minister of State (without portfolio) Hasan Ahmed Sharaf Eddine (Opposition)
The 34-member cabinet is divided equally among Saleh loyalists from the ruling General People's Congress (GPC) and the formal opposition Common Forum.
Saleh's ministers for foreign affairs and defence have retained their posts.
The interior ministry, the human rights portfolio, finance and information ministries have been entrusted to the opposition.
The new government will carry out its duties for three months, after which elections will be held and Vice President Hadi will formally take over the presidency.
Following is a list of the new Yemen cabinet:
-Prime Minister: Mohammed Basindawa (Opposition leader)
-Foreign Minister: Abu Bakr al-Qourbi (GPC)
-Defence Minister: Mohammed Nasser Ahmed (GPC)
-Interior Minister: Abdelqader Qahtan (Opposition)
-Justice Minister: Morshed Ali al-Arshani (Opposition)
-Finance Minister: Sakhr Ahmed Abbas (Opposition)
-Information Minister: Ali Ahmed al-Amrani (Opposition)
-Health Minister: Ahmed Qasem al-Ansi (GPC)
-Minister for Human Rights: Houriya Mashhour Ahmed (Opposition)
-Agriculture and Irrigation Minister: Farid Ahmed al-Moujawar (GPC)
-Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research: Yahya Mohammed al-Shoueibi (GPC)
-Religious Affairs Minister: Hammoud Mohammed al-Abad (GPC)
-Labour and Social Affairs Minister: Amat al-Razzaq Hamad (GPC)
-Public Works Minister: Omar Abdullah al-Korshami (GPC)
-Electricity Minister: Saleh Hasan Sami (Opposition)
-Petroleum and Minerals Minister: Hisham Sharaf Abdullah (GPC- former minister of trade and industry)
-Minister of Planning and International Cooperation: Mohammed Said al-Saadi (Opposition- Islamic Islah party)
-Telecommunications Minister: Ahmed Obeif bin Dagher (GPC)
-Education Minister: Abdelrazzaq Yahya al-Ashwal (Opposition)
-Legal Affairs Minister: Mohammed Ahmed al-Makhlafi (Opposition)
-Tourism Minister: Qasim Salam (Saleh loyalist)
-Water and Environment Minister: Abdo Razaz Saleh Khaled (Opposition)
-Culture Minister: Abdullah Manthouq (Opposition)
-Minister of Transport: Waed Abdullah Batheeb (Opposition)
-Minister of Trade and Industry: Saad Eddine Ali Salem bin Taleb (Opposition)
-Minister for Expatriate Affairs: al-Qahali (GPC)
-Minister of Vocational Training: Abdel Hafeth Thabet Noman (Opposition)
-Minister of Local Government Affairs: Ali Mohammed al-Yazidi (Opposition)
-Youth and Sports Minister: Moammar al-Iryani (GPC)
-Civil Services Minsiter: Nabil Abdo Shamsan (GPC)
-Minister for Fishing Resources: Awad Mohammed Saqtari (GPC- former electricity minister)
-Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs: Rashad Ahmed Rasas (GPC)
-Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs: Jawhara Hammoud Thabet (Opposition)
-Minister of State (without portfolio) Shaef Aziz Sagheer (GPC)
-Minister of State (without portfolio) Hasan Ahmed Sharaf Eddine (Opposition)
UN envoy Bin Omar in Yemen
SANAA, Dec. 08 (Saba)- The United Nations envoy to Yemen Jamal Bin Omar arrived in Sana’a on Thursday to hold talks with all sides in Yemen over political progress.
Upon his arrival, the UN envoy expressed relief over political progress in Yemen and putting the Gulf-brokered initiative into action by forming the new national unity government, which was announced on Wednesday evening.
Bin Omar also said that his visit to Sana’a will focus on meeting all Yemeni blocs and evaluating the political scene in the country. He added that the evaluation report will be submitted to the UN Council's meeting on December 14.
"I wish success to the newly formed national unity government," the UN envoy noted.
He emphasized that the new government should encompass security, stability and economy rehabilitation in the upcoming phase.
"It is important that the new government plays a role in restoring security and stability and rebuilding the economy of Yemen", he said.
Upon his arrival, the UN envoy expressed relief over political progress in Yemen and putting the Gulf-brokered initiative into action by forming the new national unity government, which was announced on Wednesday evening.
Bin Omar also said that his visit to Sana’a will focus on meeting all Yemeni blocs and evaluating the political scene in the country. He added that the evaluation report will be submitted to the UN Council's meeting on December 14.
"I wish success to the newly formed national unity government," the UN envoy noted.
He emphasized that the new government should encompass security, stability and economy rehabilitation in the upcoming phase.
"It is important that the new government plays a role in restoring security and stability and rebuilding the economy of Yemen", he said.
Rights group urges Yemen to ban child marriage
By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF, Associated Press
Dec 8, 2011
CAIRO (AP) — A leading international rights group on Thursday urged authorities in Yemen to set 18 as the minimum age for marriage to improve girls' opportunities for education and protect their human rights.
Human Rights Watch said widespread child marriage in the Arab world's poorest country jeopardizes Yemeni girls' health and keeps them second-class citizens.
A report by the New York-based group said Yemeni government and U.N. data showed that in some rural areas of Yemen, girls as young as eight were married off. Some have told HRW they were subjected to marital rape and domestic abuse.
HRW researcher Nadya Khalife said a ban on child marriage should be a priority for reform despite Yemen's ongoing turmoil that has relegated such issues to "the bottom of the political priority list."
The 54-page report was based on field research conducted in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, between August and September 2010, and interviews with more than 30 girls and women who were married off as children, as well as on interviews with members of non-governmental organizations and officials at the ministries of health and education.
According to the report, approximately 14 percent of girls in Yemen are married before the age 15, and 52 percent are married before they are 18 years old.
Yemen has been wrecked by months of political turmoil, a deadly regime crackdown on opposition protests and an upsurge in attacks by al-Qaida militants. The country's popular uprising, inspired by other Arab Spring revolts, has seen almost daily protests against longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Yemeni authorities on Wednesday announced the formation of a national unity government as part of a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal to ease embattled Saleh out of office and end the country's crisis. The new government is to be sworn in on Saturday.
HRW urged Yemen's next government to take legal steps to set the minimum age for marriage at 18 and promote public awareness of the harm of child marriages.
"Now is the time to move on this issue ... to ensure that girls and women who played a major role in Yemen's protest movement will also contribute to shaping Yemen's future," said Khalife, the HRW researcher.
The issue of Yemen's child brides received widespread attention four years ago, when an 8-year-old girl boldly went by herself to a courtroom and demanded a judge dissolve her marriage to a man in his 30s. She eventually won a divorce.
A February 2009 law set Yemen's minimum age for marriage at 17, but it was repealed after some lawmakers called it un-Islamic and sent back to parliament's constitutional committee for a review. The review has since been stalled by a group of lawmakers contending that enforcing a minimum age would be contrary to Islamic law.
Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman, who won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for her work in advancing women's rights, has also highlighted the issue.
In a 2010 opinion piece, Karman wrote that there "is a vast space in our Islamic Law heritage for reaching consensus on adopting the age of 18 as a minimum age for marriage."
Dec 8, 2011
CAIRO (AP) — A leading international rights group on Thursday urged authorities in Yemen to set 18 as the minimum age for marriage to improve girls' opportunities for education and protect their human rights.
Human Rights Watch said widespread child marriage in the Arab world's poorest country jeopardizes Yemeni girls' health and keeps them second-class citizens.
A report by the New York-based group said Yemeni government and U.N. data showed that in some rural areas of Yemen, girls as young as eight were married off. Some have told HRW they were subjected to marital rape and domestic abuse.
HRW researcher Nadya Khalife said a ban on child marriage should be a priority for reform despite Yemen's ongoing turmoil that has relegated such issues to "the bottom of the political priority list."
The 54-page report was based on field research conducted in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, between August and September 2010, and interviews with more than 30 girls and women who were married off as children, as well as on interviews with members of non-governmental organizations and officials at the ministries of health and education.
According to the report, approximately 14 percent of girls in Yemen are married before the age 15, and 52 percent are married before they are 18 years old.
Yemen has been wrecked by months of political turmoil, a deadly regime crackdown on opposition protests and an upsurge in attacks by al-Qaida militants. The country's popular uprising, inspired by other Arab Spring revolts, has seen almost daily protests against longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Yemeni authorities on Wednesday announced the formation of a national unity government as part of a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal to ease embattled Saleh out of office and end the country's crisis. The new government is to be sworn in on Saturday.
HRW urged Yemen's next government to take legal steps to set the minimum age for marriage at 18 and promote public awareness of the harm of child marriages.
"Now is the time to move on this issue ... to ensure that girls and women who played a major role in Yemen's protest movement will also contribute to shaping Yemen's future," said Khalife, the HRW researcher.
The issue of Yemen's child brides received widespread attention four years ago, when an 8-year-old girl boldly went by herself to a courtroom and demanded a judge dissolve her marriage to a man in his 30s. She eventually won a divorce.
A February 2009 law set Yemen's minimum age for marriage at 17, but it was repealed after some lawmakers called it un-Islamic and sent back to parliament's constitutional committee for a review. The review has since been stalled by a group of lawmakers contending that enforcing a minimum age would be contrary to Islamic law.
Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman, who won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for her work in advancing women's rights, has also highlighted the issue.
In a 2010 opinion piece, Karman wrote that there "is a vast space in our Islamic Law heritage for reaching consensus on adopting the age of 18 as a minimum age for marriage."
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Yemeni National Reconciliation Government formed
SANA'A, Dec. 07 (Saba) - Vice President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi issued Wednesday the republican decree No. 184 for 2011 forming the Government of the National Reconciliation.
Based on the nomination of General People Congress (GPC) and its allies and the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) and its partners, the decree announced the government's members as follows:
1- Mohammed Salem Basindwa - Prime Minister;
2- Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, Minister of Foreign Affaires;
3- Yahya al-Shu'aibi, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research;
4- Hamoud Ubad, Minister of Endowment and Islamic Affaires;
5- Amat al-Razzaq Hummad, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor;
6 - Omar al-Kurshumi, Minister of Public Works and Roads;
7 - Awadh Saad al-Socatri, Minister of Fisheries Wealth;
8 - Mohammed Nasir Ahmed, Minister of Defense;
9 - Saleh Hasan Sumai, Minister of Electricity;
10 - Hisham Sharaf, Minister of Oil and Minerals;
11 - Nabil Shamsan, Minister of Civil Service and Insurance;
12 - Muammar al-Eryani, Minister of Youth and Sports;
13 - Abdul-Qader Qahtan, Interior Minister;
14 - Mohammed al-Sa'adi, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation;
15 - Ahmed Obaid Bin Daghr, Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology;
16 - Ali Mohamed al-Yazidi, Minister of Local Administration;
17 - Sakhr Ahmed al-Wajih, Minister of Finance;
18 - Abdul-Hafez Nomu'an, Minister for Technical Education and Vocational Training;
19 - Farid Ahmed Mujawar, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation;
20 - Abdul-Razzaq Yahya al-Ashwal, Minister of Education;
21 - Ahmed Qassim al-Ansi, Minister of Public Health and Population;
22 - Houriah Ahmed Mashhour, Minister of Human Rights;
23 - Mohammed Ahmed al-Mikhlafi, Minister of Legal Affairs;
24 - Qasim Sallam, Minister of Tourism;
25 - Abdo Razzaz Saleh Khaled, Minister of Water and Environment;
26 - Abdullah Aubal Mandhouq, Minister of Culture;
27 - Mujahid al-Quhali, Minister for Expatriate Affaires;
28 - Wa'ed Abdullah Bathib, Minister of Transport;
29 - Murshed Ali al-Arashani, Minister of Justice;
30 - Saad al-Din Ali Bin Talib, Minister of Industry and Trade;
31 - Rashad Ahmad al-Rassas, Minister of State for Parliament and Shura Council affairs;
32 - Ahmed Ali al-Amrani, Minister of Information;
33 - Jawharah Hamoud Thabet, Minister of State for Cabinet Affaires;
34 - Shaif Ezi Saghir, Minister of State and Member of the Cabinet;
35 - Hasan Ahmed Sharaf al-Din, Minister of State and Member of the Cabinet.
Based on the nomination of General People Congress (GPC) and its allies and the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) and its partners, the decree announced the government's members as follows:
1- Mohammed Salem Basindwa - Prime Minister;
2- Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, Minister of Foreign Affaires;
3- Yahya al-Shu'aibi, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research;
4- Hamoud Ubad, Minister of Endowment and Islamic Affaires;
5- Amat al-Razzaq Hummad, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor;
6 - Omar al-Kurshumi, Minister of Public Works and Roads;
7 - Awadh Saad al-Socatri, Minister of Fisheries Wealth;
8 - Mohammed Nasir Ahmed, Minister of Defense;
9 - Saleh Hasan Sumai, Minister of Electricity;
10 - Hisham Sharaf, Minister of Oil and Minerals;
11 - Nabil Shamsan, Minister of Civil Service and Insurance;
12 - Muammar al-Eryani, Minister of Youth and Sports;
13 - Abdul-Qader Qahtan, Interior Minister;
14 - Mohammed al-Sa'adi, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation;
15 - Ahmed Obaid Bin Daghr, Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology;
16 - Ali Mohamed al-Yazidi, Minister of Local Administration;
17 - Sakhr Ahmed al-Wajih, Minister of Finance;
18 - Abdul-Hafez Nomu'an, Minister for Technical Education and Vocational Training;
19 - Farid Ahmed Mujawar, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation;
20 - Abdul-Razzaq Yahya al-Ashwal, Minister of Education;
21 - Ahmed Qassim al-Ansi, Minister of Public Health and Population;
22 - Houriah Ahmed Mashhour, Minister of Human Rights;
23 - Mohammed Ahmed al-Mikhlafi, Minister of Legal Affairs;
24 - Qasim Sallam, Minister of Tourism;
25 - Abdo Razzaz Saleh Khaled, Minister of Water and Environment;
26 - Abdullah Aubal Mandhouq, Minister of Culture;
27 - Mujahid al-Quhali, Minister for Expatriate Affaires;
28 - Wa'ed Abdullah Bathib, Minister of Transport;
29 - Murshed Ali al-Arashani, Minister of Justice;
30 - Saad al-Din Ali Bin Talib, Minister of Industry and Trade;
31 - Rashad Ahmad al-Rassas, Minister of State for Parliament and Shura Council affairs;
32 - Ahmed Ali al-Amrani, Minister of Information;
33 - Jawharah Hamoud Thabet, Minister of State for Cabinet Affaires;
34 - Shaif Ezi Saghir, Minister of State and Member of the Cabinet;
35 - Hasan Ahmed Sharaf al-Din, Minister of State and Member of the Cabinet.
Yemen vice president decrees unity government-agency
Wed Dec 7, 2011
SANAA Dec 7 (Reuters) - Yemeni Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi issued a decree on Wednesday setting up a unity government headed by opposition leader Mohammed Basindwa, the state news agency Saba said.
The decision comes as part of an agreement to ease President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of power after 33 years in office and end months of public protests that have paralysed the country and pushed it to the brink of civil war.
SANAA Dec 7 (Reuters) - Yemeni Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi issued a decree on Wednesday setting up a unity government headed by opposition leader Mohammed Basindwa, the state news agency Saba said.
The decision comes as part of an agreement to ease President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of power after 33 years in office and end months of public protests that have paralysed the country and pushed it to the brink of civil war.
ICRC Alarmed By Escalating Violence In Yemen
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 7(Bernama) -- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is deeply alarmed by escalating violence in the Yemeni city of Taiz as well as the security situation which was making it extremely difficult for medical personnel to treat the injured.
Eric Marclay, the ICRC's head of delegation in Yemen, said there were worrying reports of injured people being unable to reach the medical facilities, and of facilities being attacked and damaged.
"The violence has had a serious impact on basic services in recent weeks, with life-saving medical services especially hard hit. The escalating violence on the streets of Taiz has left dozens dead or wounded'" he said in a statement posted on the ICRC website.
In some cases, Yemen Red Crescent volunteers and others transporting the injured, have been prevented from saving lives or have been injured themselves.
"Trying to save life can cost you your own these days," Marclay said.
"Anyone who is injured must be able to receive life-saving medical care without delay. Access to health care infrastructure must not be arbitrarily denied or limited. It is essential that medical staff, vehicles and facilities be protected and respected," he added.
The Geneva-based ICRC, which has a regional office here, also calls on the authorities, fighters and all others involved to respect human life and dignity and to allow first-aid and medical teams to treat and transport injured people in safety.
The organisation, which has been helping medical facilities cope with casualties since the unrest started in Yemen early this year, said that for the last few days, a team of ICRC surgeons had been working hand in hand with local doctors in Taiz, carrying out life-saving surgery.
Eric Marclay, the ICRC's head of delegation in Yemen, said there were worrying reports of injured people being unable to reach the medical facilities, and of facilities being attacked and damaged.
"The violence has had a serious impact on basic services in recent weeks, with life-saving medical services especially hard hit. The escalating violence on the streets of Taiz has left dozens dead or wounded'" he said in a statement posted on the ICRC website.
In some cases, Yemen Red Crescent volunteers and others transporting the injured, have been prevented from saving lives or have been injured themselves.
"Trying to save life can cost you your own these days," Marclay said.
"Anyone who is injured must be able to receive life-saving medical care without delay. Access to health care infrastructure must not be arbitrarily denied or limited. It is essential that medical staff, vehicles and facilities be protected and respected," he added.
The Geneva-based ICRC, which has a regional office here, also calls on the authorities, fighters and all others involved to respect human life and dignity and to allow first-aid and medical teams to treat and transport injured people in safety.
The organisation, which has been helping medical facilities cope with casualties since the unrest started in Yemen early this year, said that for the last few days, a team of ICRC surgeons had been working hand in hand with local doctors in Taiz, carrying out life-saving surgery.
Sahel facing major food crisis in 2012, warns EU aid commissioner
Humanitarian aid chief urges immediate action as 7 million face food shortages ahead of further anticipated shortfalls
Mark Tran
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 7 December 2011
Africa's Sahel region faces a severe food shortage next year because of erratic rainfall and localised dry spells, the EU commissioner for humanitarian aid crisis response has warned.
Kristalina Georgieva said investing in the Sahel now was not just the ethically and morally right thing to do, but would be less expensive than waiting for disaster to strike, as was the case in Somalia.
Seven million people are already facing shortages in Niger, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, with major shortfalls in food production in many areas. The figures point to a massive problem of food availability next year, according to the European commission.
The commission last month increased humanitarian funding to the Sahel by 10m euros, on top of the 45m euros it has given to the region this year. Niger and Mauritania have already declared a crisis, prepared national action plans, and appealed for international help.
Most of the population in the Sahel is heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture and livestock for survival. The poor 2011/12 growing season in the region, which has experienced erratic rainfall followed by localised dry spells, has caused alarm. Increased world market prices for rice are expected to have a negative impact on rice import levels and on prices in west Africa. As a consequence, the EU fears many of the poorest households will be unable to get their hands on enough food.
Georgieva expressed her frustration with the international community's inability to respond in timely fashion to crises. "Too often the massive response comes when the crisis is already deepening and on the six o'clock news," she said. "We have to be ready to act independently of the news cycle."
That sense of frustration came through clearly in the crisis in east Africa, where the early warning systems foretold drought – the worst in some areas for 60 years – but the international response was tardy. Georgieva said the crisis in the Horn of Africa, where 13 million people were in need of emergency help, is expected to last at least until the spring and perhaps the summer. But the number at risk of dying from hunger has fallen because of the massive international response.
Despite the problems of access posed by al-Shabaab, the Islamist insurgents in Somalia, Georgieva said relief efforts from Turkey, the Arab League and other Muslim countries had made a big difference. The EU commissioner, however, expressed concern at the long-term spillover effects from the Somalia crisis, with Somali refugees fleeing to Ethiopia, Djibouti, Yemen and Kenya, where some 450,000 have found shelter at the world's largest refugee camp in Dadaab, on the border with Ethiopia.
"As long as Somalia is unstable, the people who have left will not go back," said Georgieva.
The EC's funding for the Sahel is being spent on food supplies, mobile clinics to identify early signs of malnutrition, and cash transfers for women.
"I was in Niger recently and asked a man whether he was upset that money was going to women," said Georgieva. "He had a big smile on his face and said it was a good idea because if the money was given to him he would have bought a bicycle."
Fuelling concerns about the Sahel are prospects for surrounding countries, including Nigeria, where harvests are expected to be poor, depriving the region of buffer stocks.
Georgieva emphasised the importance of taking preventive measures against drought. Citing the example of the Moyale district in northern Kenya, she said simple techniques such as water harvesting – collecting rainfall on roofs – and reducing livestock numbers had prepared the people well for this year's drought.
"One of the most valuable lessons from Kenya is that long-term initiatives on drought resistance pay off," said Georgieva.
The EC says its funding for the Sahel means the most vulnerable households in the worst affected areas will be protected at the onset of the "lean" period, three months from now. In the longer term, the Sahel is expected to come under increased pressure from climate change.
According to a UN environment programme study released yesterday, the visible consequences of climate change include increased competition for freshwater and land among fishermen and farmers, leading to tensions and conflict. The destruction of crops due to droughts has forced farmers to migrate, caused a rise in food prices, and displaced people. The study called for more investments in climate change adaptation policies to prevent conflict in the region.
Mark Tran
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 7 December 2011
Africa's Sahel region faces a severe food shortage next year because of erratic rainfall and localised dry spells, the EU commissioner for humanitarian aid crisis response has warned.
Kristalina Georgieva said investing in the Sahel now was not just the ethically and morally right thing to do, but would be less expensive than waiting for disaster to strike, as was the case in Somalia.
Seven million people are already facing shortages in Niger, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, with major shortfalls in food production in many areas. The figures point to a massive problem of food availability next year, according to the European commission.
The commission last month increased humanitarian funding to the Sahel by 10m euros, on top of the 45m euros it has given to the region this year. Niger and Mauritania have already declared a crisis, prepared national action plans, and appealed for international help.
Most of the population in the Sahel is heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture and livestock for survival. The poor 2011/12 growing season in the region, which has experienced erratic rainfall followed by localised dry spells, has caused alarm. Increased world market prices for rice are expected to have a negative impact on rice import levels and on prices in west Africa. As a consequence, the EU fears many of the poorest households will be unable to get their hands on enough food.
Georgieva expressed her frustration with the international community's inability to respond in timely fashion to crises. "Too often the massive response comes when the crisis is already deepening and on the six o'clock news," she said. "We have to be ready to act independently of the news cycle."
That sense of frustration came through clearly in the crisis in east Africa, where the early warning systems foretold drought – the worst in some areas for 60 years – but the international response was tardy. Georgieva said the crisis in the Horn of Africa, where 13 million people were in need of emergency help, is expected to last at least until the spring and perhaps the summer. But the number at risk of dying from hunger has fallen because of the massive international response.
Despite the problems of access posed by al-Shabaab, the Islamist insurgents in Somalia, Georgieva said relief efforts from Turkey, the Arab League and other Muslim countries had made a big difference. The EU commissioner, however, expressed concern at the long-term spillover effects from the Somalia crisis, with Somali refugees fleeing to Ethiopia, Djibouti, Yemen and Kenya, where some 450,000 have found shelter at the world's largest refugee camp in Dadaab, on the border with Ethiopia.
"As long as Somalia is unstable, the people who have left will not go back," said Georgieva.
The EC's funding for the Sahel is being spent on food supplies, mobile clinics to identify early signs of malnutrition, and cash transfers for women.
"I was in Niger recently and asked a man whether he was upset that money was going to women," said Georgieva. "He had a big smile on his face and said it was a good idea because if the money was given to him he would have bought a bicycle."
Fuelling concerns about the Sahel are prospects for surrounding countries, including Nigeria, where harvests are expected to be poor, depriving the region of buffer stocks.
Georgieva emphasised the importance of taking preventive measures against drought. Citing the example of the Moyale district in northern Kenya, she said simple techniques such as water harvesting – collecting rainfall on roofs – and reducing livestock numbers had prepared the people well for this year's drought.
"One of the most valuable lessons from Kenya is that long-term initiatives on drought resistance pay off," said Georgieva.
The EC says its funding for the Sahel means the most vulnerable households in the worst affected areas will be protected at the onset of the "lean" period, three months from now. In the longer term, the Sahel is expected to come under increased pressure from climate change.
According to a UN environment programme study released yesterday, the visible consequences of climate change include increased competition for freshwater and land among fishermen and farmers, leading to tensions and conflict. The destruction of crops due to droughts has forced farmers to migrate, caused a rise in food prices, and displaced people. The study called for more investments in climate change adaptation policies to prevent conflict in the region.
Yemen PM says government imminent, U.N. warns on civilians
Mohammed Ghobari,
December 7, 2011
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's new prime minister said on Tuesday that an interim government intended to pull the country back from the brink of civil war would be formed in the next 48 hours.
The announcement came as forces opposing and loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh pulled back from some positions in the southern city of Taiz, after a bout of fighting there killed at least 20 people.
The violence has threatened to derail the formation of the government, a key element a Gulf-brokered deal to end Saleh's 33-year rule.
Mohammed Basindwa, a former foreign minister representing opposition parties who are to split cabinet posts with Saleh's party, told Reuters he expected the government to be agreed on Wednesday night or the following day.
Basindwa last week said the opposition's commitment to the power transfer depended on ending the bloodshed in Taiz, a hotbed of protests against Saleh.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a bloc of Yemen's richer neighbours, shares U.S. fears that the struggle over Saleh's fate could lead to chaos and embolden al Qaeda's Yemeni branch.
On Tuesday the belligerents withdrew from some positions they held in the city, some 200 km (120 miles) south of the capital Sanaa, leaving residents to survey the devastation.
"The two sides are fighting a guerrilla war. I lost all three of my businesses in 48 hours," said Mahmoud Hamid Sharaf, a merchant speaking outside his warehouse of computer equipment.
He said fighters from the Republican Guard, a unit led by Saleh's son, had fought from the warehouse before looting it.
The city's security chief acknowledged government troops had caused casualties in the city, but said anti-Saleh fighters were extending the fight.
"The use of heavy artillery in the city is wrong but our soldiers are acting in self-defence, sometimes the only way to defend ourselves is to use a suitable weapon used by the others," said Abdullah Qairan.
"TAIZ WILL PAY THE PRICE IN BLOOD"
Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, demanded in a statement the government rein its forces in Taiz.
"...(D)espite the successive deals and ceasefires, Government security forces continue to use live ammunition against unarmed protestors," the statement said.
A committee tasked with implementing a ceasefire between the two sides moved through streets littered with buses wrecked by artillery shells, heaps of burning rubbish and shops with windows blown out by gunfire and shelling.
"We are trying desperately to de-militarise the city, to persuade the army to return to their barracks and the tribesmen to go back to their villages, if this doesn't happen, Taiz will pay the price in blood," a member of the committee said.
The fighting came as the coalition of opposition parties that signed the power transfer deal with Saleh last month said they had agreed on their candidates for an interim government.
Opposition figures have warned formation of a government could founder if the other side puts forth names linked to gross abuses during the attempt to crush protests against Saleh, who would enjoy immunity from prosecution under the transition deal.
The government is to see Yemen through to presidential elections which Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the vice president to whom Saleh has transferred his powers, has set for February 21.
Any post-Saleh government would face multiple challenges including resurgent separatist sentiment in the south, with which Saleh's north fought a civil war in 1994 following their unification under his rule four years earlier.
The region is the site of conflict between government forces and Islamist fighters who have seized chunks of an entire province, displacing as many as 100,000 people.
December 7, 2011
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's new prime minister said on Tuesday that an interim government intended to pull the country back from the brink of civil war would be formed in the next 48 hours.
The announcement came as forces opposing and loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh pulled back from some positions in the southern city of Taiz, after a bout of fighting there killed at least 20 people.
The violence has threatened to derail the formation of the government, a key element a Gulf-brokered deal to end Saleh's 33-year rule.
Mohammed Basindwa, a former foreign minister representing opposition parties who are to split cabinet posts with Saleh's party, told Reuters he expected the government to be agreed on Wednesday night or the following day.
Basindwa last week said the opposition's commitment to the power transfer depended on ending the bloodshed in Taiz, a hotbed of protests against Saleh.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a bloc of Yemen's richer neighbours, shares U.S. fears that the struggle over Saleh's fate could lead to chaos and embolden al Qaeda's Yemeni branch.
On Tuesday the belligerents withdrew from some positions they held in the city, some 200 km (120 miles) south of the capital Sanaa, leaving residents to survey the devastation.
"The two sides are fighting a guerrilla war. I lost all three of my businesses in 48 hours," said Mahmoud Hamid Sharaf, a merchant speaking outside his warehouse of computer equipment.
He said fighters from the Republican Guard, a unit led by Saleh's son, had fought from the warehouse before looting it.
The city's security chief acknowledged government troops had caused casualties in the city, but said anti-Saleh fighters were extending the fight.
"The use of heavy artillery in the city is wrong but our soldiers are acting in self-defence, sometimes the only way to defend ourselves is to use a suitable weapon used by the others," said Abdullah Qairan.
"TAIZ WILL PAY THE PRICE IN BLOOD"
Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, demanded in a statement the government rein its forces in Taiz.
"...(D)espite the successive deals and ceasefires, Government security forces continue to use live ammunition against unarmed protestors," the statement said.
A committee tasked with implementing a ceasefire between the two sides moved through streets littered with buses wrecked by artillery shells, heaps of burning rubbish and shops with windows blown out by gunfire and shelling.
"We are trying desperately to de-militarise the city, to persuade the army to return to their barracks and the tribesmen to go back to their villages, if this doesn't happen, Taiz will pay the price in blood," a member of the committee said.
The fighting came as the coalition of opposition parties that signed the power transfer deal with Saleh last month said they had agreed on their candidates for an interim government.
Opposition figures have warned formation of a government could founder if the other side puts forth names linked to gross abuses during the attempt to crush protests against Saleh, who would enjoy immunity from prosecution under the transition deal.
The government is to see Yemen through to presidential elections which Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the vice president to whom Saleh has transferred his powers, has set for February 21.
Any post-Saleh government would face multiple challenges including resurgent separatist sentiment in the south, with which Saleh's north fought a civil war in 1994 following their unification under his rule four years earlier.
The region is the site of conflict between government forces and Islamist fighters who have seized chunks of an entire province, displacing as many as 100,000 people.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
U.N. urges halt to killings in Yemen, access for aid
Tue Dec 6, 2011
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations called on all factions in Yemen on Tuesday to cease attacks on civilians and urged the government to allow access for aid supplies and U.N. human rights monitors.
In coordinated statements, the U.N. human rights office, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Yemen Humanitarian Coordinator voiced concern about the deteriorating situation despite the signing of a peace deal nearly two weeks ago.
"We condemn continuing attacks on civilians particularly in Taiz where we are seeing reports that 22 people have been killed in shooting and shelling since Thursday last week (December 1), including two children," Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, told a news briefing.
"The continued use of disproportionate force by part of the government security forces despite commitments made to investigate serious human rights violations is extremely disappointing," she said. "The killings must stop immediately and we urge all sides to halt the use of violent force."
Forces loyal to outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh shot dead a woman at a protest march in Taiz on Monday, witnesses and activists said, despite tanks withdrawing under a ceasefire pact.
Anti-Saleh tribesmen brandishing Kalashnikov rifles and members of the Republican Guard, led by Saleh's son Ahmed, were still on many of Taiz's streets, witnesses said.
UNICEF said that its figures showed that 3 children had been killed and 7 injured in the latest round of violence in Taiz, some 200 km (120 miles) south of the capital Sanaa.
"That brings the total number of children killed so far to 138, the majority through live ammunition. This includes bullets, shelling and missile attacks," UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said, adding that 568 children had been wounded to date.
"Our youngest victim thus far was 3 months old, killed in Taiz on the first of December," she told reporters in Geneva.
Heavy shelling and street fighting have damaged civilian neighbourhoods and forced many residents to flee their homes in Taiz, the Yemen Humanitarian Country Team that links U.N. and other aid agencies said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
"Access to basic social services is increasingly limited and schools and hospitals have been occupied or come under attack by armed forces and armed groups," depriving more than 100,000 children of access to schooling or health care, it said.
"We call upon all armed actors involved in the conflict in Taiz to ensure the safety and protection of all civilians in accordance with universally recognised principles of human rights and international humanitarian law," said Jens Toyberg-Frandzen, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations called on all factions in Yemen on Tuesday to cease attacks on civilians and urged the government to allow access for aid supplies and U.N. human rights monitors.
In coordinated statements, the U.N. human rights office, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Yemen Humanitarian Coordinator voiced concern about the deteriorating situation despite the signing of a peace deal nearly two weeks ago.
"We condemn continuing attacks on civilians particularly in Taiz where we are seeing reports that 22 people have been killed in shooting and shelling since Thursday last week (December 1), including two children," Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, told a news briefing.
"The continued use of disproportionate force by part of the government security forces despite commitments made to investigate serious human rights violations is extremely disappointing," she said. "The killings must stop immediately and we urge all sides to halt the use of violent force."
Forces loyal to outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh shot dead a woman at a protest march in Taiz on Monday, witnesses and activists said, despite tanks withdrawing under a ceasefire pact.
Anti-Saleh tribesmen brandishing Kalashnikov rifles and members of the Republican Guard, led by Saleh's son Ahmed, were still on many of Taiz's streets, witnesses said.
UNICEF said that its figures showed that 3 children had been killed and 7 injured in the latest round of violence in Taiz, some 200 km (120 miles) south of the capital Sanaa.
"That brings the total number of children killed so far to 138, the majority through live ammunition. This includes bullets, shelling and missile attacks," UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said, adding that 568 children had been wounded to date.
"Our youngest victim thus far was 3 months old, killed in Taiz on the first of December," she told reporters in Geneva.
Heavy shelling and street fighting have damaged civilian neighbourhoods and forced many residents to flee their homes in Taiz, the Yemen Humanitarian Country Team that links U.N. and other aid agencies said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
"Access to basic social services is increasingly limited and schools and hospitals have been occupied or come under attack by armed forces and armed groups," depriving more than 100,000 children of access to schooling or health care, it said.
"We call upon all armed actors involved in the conflict in Taiz to ensure the safety and protection of all civilians in accordance with universally recognised principles of human rights and international humanitarian law," said Jens Toyberg-Frandzen, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.
YEMEN: Children at risk as aid access denied
SANA’A, 6 December 2011 (IRIN) - Thousands of people under “siege” by armed rebels in northern Yemen lack food and healthcare, which has already resulted in deaths and risks killing many more, local leaders and aid workers say.
Four children under five have died of hunger since Houthi gunmen cut off access to Dammaj village more than a month ago, Ahmad al-Qurashi, of the local NGO Seyaj Organization for Childhood Protection (SOCP), told IRIN.
The village, 9km southeast of Sa’ada City, the capital of Sa’ada governorate, is home to about 12,000 people. The area is controlled by the rebels but is home to an institute for Islamic Salafi teachings, Dar al-Hadith, which is at the centre of the conflict.
Up to 200 other children are at high risk due to the lack of food, water and medical supplies, according to Hussein al-Hajouri, a spokesman for Dar al-Hadith. They could die if aid organizations are not allowed access, he said.
"The situation is getting much worse for those stranded children amid lack of food, fuel and medical supplies,” said SOCP chairman Ahmad al-Qurashi. “Healthcare centres in the area have become inaccessible."
All the roads to medical centres are blocked or unsafe. “For this reason, mothers are compelled to deliver at home unattended,” Al-Hajouri told IRIN. “Last week, a woman died in labour at home after [being in pain] for six days. A number of new-borns have died due to lack of medical services."
Three elderly men have also died because they could not obtain their regular medication, according to the local independent news website, Sahafah.net.
Appeal
An armed conflict between the Houthi rebels, who belong to an extreme Shi’a sect of Islam, and Salafi residents of the town, who subscribe to the fundamentalist Sunni branch of Islam taught at Dar al-Hadith, has now killed 30 people and injured dozens more since it erupted in the final week of October, according to Dhaifallah Solaiman, a local council member from Sa’ada.
On 3 December, SOCP made a humanitarian appeal to save the lives of some 3,000 children stranded in Dammaj.
A team with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was finally able to enter the area on 2 December to provide urgently needed humanitarian assistance, said communication coordinator Rabab al-Rifai.
According to Al-Rifai, the initial assistance consisted of 500 rations of food, which included wheat grain, rice, beans, sugar, salt and cooking oil.
The ICRC also provided medical items – dressing kits, intravenous fluids, painkillers and antibiotics – and several people were transferred to hospital for treatment. In view of the cold winter, the ICRC also made available 1,000 blankets, soap and nappies to help improve hygiene conditions.
“Thousands of people who live in this part of Sa'ada governorate have been denied access to essential commodities, including their daily needs in food and basic medicines,” said Eric Marclay, head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen. “This is taking its toll on the population there, namely the sick, the elderly, women and children, but also the injured.”
Fuel shortages
Complicating matters further, the stranded civilians say they cannot use the wheat grains they received from ICRC because of a lack of fuel in their village.
"We don't need wheat,” Moflih Hajar told IRIN from Dammaj. “How can we have it grinded into flour? All the grinding machines in the village have been closed down due to lack of diesel."
He said almost all the families that received wheat were still without food. "Our children and ourselves need bread, which is impossible to make under the status quo.”
Source of conflict
Sectarian tensions between the Shi’a Houthis and the Salafi students have existed for years, with each trying to spread their ideology in the area. Politics are also at play. The rebels support the popular uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, while the Salafis believe that a ruler must be obeyed and respected and have issued edicts banning protests.
But according to the local weekly Yemen Times, the current conflict surfaced last month after a letter, written by Yahya al-Hajouri, head of Dar al-Hadith, was leaked to the Houthis. The letter expressed thanks to both the Yemeni and Saudi governments for fighting the Houthis in 2009. The Houthis attacked Dar al-Hadith and residential homes suspected of housing armed Salafis. The latter fired back. The Houthis then resorted to heavy artillery and banned entry and exit from the village.
Dar al-Hadith is run by a hard-core Salafi group and teaches about 7,000 students, including women and children, from Yemen and foreign nations.
Mohammed Abdussalam, a spokesman for the Houthis, accused Salafi students at Dar al-Hadith of attacking them from time to time. "They have been attempting to take over strategic military positions outside their area," he said.
The Houthis have been waging attacks and provoking war inside Yemen since 2004.
Four children under five have died of hunger since Houthi gunmen cut off access to Dammaj village more than a month ago, Ahmad al-Qurashi, of the local NGO Seyaj Organization for Childhood Protection (SOCP), told IRIN.
The village, 9km southeast of Sa’ada City, the capital of Sa’ada governorate, is home to about 12,000 people. The area is controlled by the rebels but is home to an institute for Islamic Salafi teachings, Dar al-Hadith, which is at the centre of the conflict.
Up to 200 other children are at high risk due to the lack of food, water and medical supplies, according to Hussein al-Hajouri, a spokesman for Dar al-Hadith. They could die if aid organizations are not allowed access, he said.
"The situation is getting much worse for those stranded children amid lack of food, fuel and medical supplies,” said SOCP chairman Ahmad al-Qurashi. “Healthcare centres in the area have become inaccessible."
All the roads to medical centres are blocked or unsafe. “For this reason, mothers are compelled to deliver at home unattended,” Al-Hajouri told IRIN. “Last week, a woman died in labour at home after [being in pain] for six days. A number of new-borns have died due to lack of medical services."
Three elderly men have also died because they could not obtain their regular medication, according to the local independent news website, Sahafah.net.
Appeal
An armed conflict between the Houthi rebels, who belong to an extreme Shi’a sect of Islam, and Salafi residents of the town, who subscribe to the fundamentalist Sunni branch of Islam taught at Dar al-Hadith, has now killed 30 people and injured dozens more since it erupted in the final week of October, according to Dhaifallah Solaiman, a local council member from Sa’ada.
On 3 December, SOCP made a humanitarian appeal to save the lives of some 3,000 children stranded in Dammaj.
A team with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was finally able to enter the area on 2 December to provide urgently needed humanitarian assistance, said communication coordinator Rabab al-Rifai.
According to Al-Rifai, the initial assistance consisted of 500 rations of food, which included wheat grain, rice, beans, sugar, salt and cooking oil.
The ICRC also provided medical items – dressing kits, intravenous fluids, painkillers and antibiotics – and several people were transferred to hospital for treatment. In view of the cold winter, the ICRC also made available 1,000 blankets, soap and nappies to help improve hygiene conditions.
“Thousands of people who live in this part of Sa'ada governorate have been denied access to essential commodities, including their daily needs in food and basic medicines,” said Eric Marclay, head of the ICRC delegation in Yemen. “This is taking its toll on the population there, namely the sick, the elderly, women and children, but also the injured.”
Fuel shortages
Complicating matters further, the stranded civilians say they cannot use the wheat grains they received from ICRC because of a lack of fuel in their village.
"We don't need wheat,” Moflih Hajar told IRIN from Dammaj. “How can we have it grinded into flour? All the grinding machines in the village have been closed down due to lack of diesel."
He said almost all the families that received wheat were still without food. "Our children and ourselves need bread, which is impossible to make under the status quo.”
Source of conflict
Sectarian tensions between the Shi’a Houthis and the Salafi students have existed for years, with each trying to spread their ideology in the area. Politics are also at play. The rebels support the popular uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, while the Salafis believe that a ruler must be obeyed and respected and have issued edicts banning protests.
But according to the local weekly Yemen Times, the current conflict surfaced last month after a letter, written by Yahya al-Hajouri, head of Dar al-Hadith, was leaked to the Houthis. The letter expressed thanks to both the Yemeni and Saudi governments for fighting the Houthis in 2009. The Houthis attacked Dar al-Hadith and residential homes suspected of housing armed Salafis. The latter fired back. The Houthis then resorted to heavy artillery and banned entry and exit from the village.
Dar al-Hadith is run by a hard-core Salafi group and teaches about 7,000 students, including women and children, from Yemen and foreign nations.
Mohammed Abdussalam, a spokesman for the Houthis, accused Salafi students at Dar al-Hadith of attacking them from time to time. "They have been attempting to take over strategic military positions outside their area," he said.
The Houthis have been waging attacks and provoking war inside Yemen since 2004.
Yemen opposition blames regime for killings
By Wissam Keyrouz (AFP)
Dec 6, 2011
SANAA — A civilian was killed when a shell hit a bus in Yemen's second city of Taez where fighting has cost more than 30 lives since last week, medics said, as the opposition blamed the regime for the violence.
The bus was heading towards the restive northern Al-Hasab district of the flashpoint city late on Monday when it was hit by an artillery round fired by troops loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the sources said.
"One passenger was killed while several others were wounded," a medic said.
After a lull in the fighting on Sunday, clashes between armed tribesmen and Saleh's forces erupted in Taez late on Monday.
Earlier the same day, two women were killed and six people were wounded when Saleh's forces fired on a crowd of anti-regime protesters in the city.
The latest deaths brought to 34 the number of people killed in Taez since Thursday.
Brief overnight clashes between tribesmen loyal to dissident tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar and Saleh's troops also shook Sanaa's northern Al-Hasaba district, but no casualties were reported.
Both Sanaa and Taez were quiet later on Tuesday, residents said.
Hundreds of people have been killed nationwide since an uprising began against Saleh's 33-year-long rule in late January.
On November 23, Saleh signed a Gulf-brokered and UN-backed transfer deal to transfer power to his deputy, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, in return for immunity from prosecution.
Opposition spokesman Mohammed Qahtan accused "Saleh and his sons" of orchestrating the violence in Taez.
Saleh's son Ahmed commands the elite Republican Guards, who have been repeatedly locked in deadly confrontations with dissidents.
Opposition sources have said the ambassadors of several Gulf and Western countries in Sanaa, monitoring the implementation of the Gulf deal, have asked to visit Taez.
Monday's killings came a day after Hadi formed a military commission under the Gulf Cooperation Council agreement to oversee the restructuring of the security forces, many of which are controlled by Saleh's relatives.
The official Saba news agency said the 14-member commission would also oversee the withdrawal of gunmen from the streets.
Meanwhile, Saba said on Tuesday that 110 officers and soldiers from the First Armoured Brigade led by dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar had been arrested.
Led by General Sadiq Ali Sarhan, the soldiers were sent to Taez to "implement a terrorist plan by (the Islamist) Al-Islah (reform) party and its civilians and army branches and arms... to occupy the city and cause trouble," it said.
The statement accused General Ahmar, whose troops protect protesters in Sanaa, of plotting to seize control of "Yemeni cities one after the other and carry out assassinations" in Taez.
A ceasefire was reported on Saturday in Taez between pro-Saleh troops and armed tribesmen who have thrown their support behind the mass protest movement.
The developments came as prime minister-designate Mohammed Basindawa was expected to announce a national unity government within two days, a European diplomat and a Yemeni official said on Sunday.
"There are no problems regarding the government. It will be formed today or tomorrow," Qahtan said on Tuesday.
"Both sides have agreed not to propose provocative names to take part in the government," said Qahtan, adding that he himself was "a provocative name."
Under the Gulf initiative, half of the government must be opposition members, with regime loyalists making up the other half.
Dec 6, 2011
SANAA — A civilian was killed when a shell hit a bus in Yemen's second city of Taez where fighting has cost more than 30 lives since last week, medics said, as the opposition blamed the regime for the violence.
The bus was heading towards the restive northern Al-Hasab district of the flashpoint city late on Monday when it was hit by an artillery round fired by troops loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the sources said.
"One passenger was killed while several others were wounded," a medic said.
After a lull in the fighting on Sunday, clashes between armed tribesmen and Saleh's forces erupted in Taez late on Monday.
Earlier the same day, two women were killed and six people were wounded when Saleh's forces fired on a crowd of anti-regime protesters in the city.
The latest deaths brought to 34 the number of people killed in Taez since Thursday.
Brief overnight clashes between tribesmen loyal to dissident tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar and Saleh's troops also shook Sanaa's northern Al-Hasaba district, but no casualties were reported.
Both Sanaa and Taez were quiet later on Tuesday, residents said.
Hundreds of people have been killed nationwide since an uprising began against Saleh's 33-year-long rule in late January.
On November 23, Saleh signed a Gulf-brokered and UN-backed transfer deal to transfer power to his deputy, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, in return for immunity from prosecution.
Opposition spokesman Mohammed Qahtan accused "Saleh and his sons" of orchestrating the violence in Taez.
Saleh's son Ahmed commands the elite Republican Guards, who have been repeatedly locked in deadly confrontations with dissidents.
Opposition sources have said the ambassadors of several Gulf and Western countries in Sanaa, monitoring the implementation of the Gulf deal, have asked to visit Taez.
Monday's killings came a day after Hadi formed a military commission under the Gulf Cooperation Council agreement to oversee the restructuring of the security forces, many of which are controlled by Saleh's relatives.
The official Saba news agency said the 14-member commission would also oversee the withdrawal of gunmen from the streets.
Meanwhile, Saba said on Tuesday that 110 officers and soldiers from the First Armoured Brigade led by dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar had been arrested.
Led by General Sadiq Ali Sarhan, the soldiers were sent to Taez to "implement a terrorist plan by (the Islamist) Al-Islah (reform) party and its civilians and army branches and arms... to occupy the city and cause trouble," it said.
The statement accused General Ahmar, whose troops protect protesters in Sanaa, of plotting to seize control of "Yemeni cities one after the other and carry out assassinations" in Taez.
A ceasefire was reported on Saturday in Taez between pro-Saleh troops and armed tribesmen who have thrown their support behind the mass protest movement.
The developments came as prime minister-designate Mohammed Basindawa was expected to announce a national unity government within two days, a European diplomat and a Yemeni official said on Sunday.
"There are no problems regarding the government. It will be formed today or tomorrow," Qahtan said on Tuesday.
"Both sides have agreed not to propose provocative names to take part in the government," said Qahtan, adding that he himself was "a provocative name."
Under the Gulf initiative, half of the government must be opposition members, with regime loyalists making up the other half.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Protester shot dead as snipers stay in Taiz, tanks quit
Mon Dec 5, 2011
By Mohammed Ghobari
TAIZ, Yemen (Reuters) - Forces loyal to outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh shot dead a woman in a protest march in Taiz on Monday, witnesses and activists said, despite tanks withdrawing under a ceasefire pact.
Anti-Saleh tribesmen brandishing Kalashnikov rifles and members of the Republican Guard, led by Saleh's son Ahmed, were still on many of Taiz's streets, witnesses said.
Tanks, armoured vehicles and opposition fighters left some areas of Taiz, a hub of 10 months of unrest against Saleh's 33-year rule, but gunmen and snipers remained and had fired on demonstrators, witnesses said.
"Both sides violated the ceasefire agreement. We were marching peacefully and they (Saleh's forces) shot at us yet again," medical student Hamoud al-Aklamy told Reuters.
Both sides had pulled out of parts of the city on the orders of a committee of lawmakers, set up by acting head of state Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi this weekend, to try to end fighting that has killed at least 20 since Thursday.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the centre of Taiz, some 200 km (120 miles) south of the capital Sanaa, to protest against attacks on peaceful protesters.
At least eight people in the anti-Saleh march were injured by gunmen seen shooting from rooftops, including a 20-year-old woman who died at a hospital after she was shot in the chest, doctors said.
The attempts to end clashes in Taiz came less than two weeks after Saleh signed a deal to hand over power to his deputy as part of a Gulf initiative by Yemen's wealthy Arab neighbours to end protests there.
The United States has been worried that the protests, which have weakened central government control in Yemen, could allow al Qaeda to take advantage of the security vacuum and threaten the world's number one oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, next door.
Activists blamed Monday's attacks on Saleh, who they say was determined to assert his control over the army despite the accord that made him a ceremonial president with no real powers.
"Saleh said he transferred his authority to the vice president, but this is a game. We won't have a new government until half of Taiz is dead," said Aklamy.
Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Basindwa, an opposition leader who is to form a unity government with Saleh's General People's Congress party, has said he would rethink his commitments under the deal if fighting in Taiz did not stop.
Although the violence had eased since Sunday, witnesses heard at least six explosions in the city on Monday.
Political crisis has frequently halted the modest oil exports Yemen uses to finance imports of basic foodstuffs, and ushered in what aid agencies deem a humanitarian crisis.
More than 100,000 people have been displaced by military conflicts in both the north and south.
By Mohammed Ghobari
TAIZ, Yemen (Reuters) - Forces loyal to outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh shot dead a woman in a protest march in Taiz on Monday, witnesses and activists said, despite tanks withdrawing under a ceasefire pact.
Anti-Saleh tribesmen brandishing Kalashnikov rifles and members of the Republican Guard, led by Saleh's son Ahmed, were still on many of Taiz's streets, witnesses said.
Tanks, armoured vehicles and opposition fighters left some areas of Taiz, a hub of 10 months of unrest against Saleh's 33-year rule, but gunmen and snipers remained and had fired on demonstrators, witnesses said.
"Both sides violated the ceasefire agreement. We were marching peacefully and they (Saleh's forces) shot at us yet again," medical student Hamoud al-Aklamy told Reuters.
Both sides had pulled out of parts of the city on the orders of a committee of lawmakers, set up by acting head of state Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi this weekend, to try to end fighting that has killed at least 20 since Thursday.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the centre of Taiz, some 200 km (120 miles) south of the capital Sanaa, to protest against attacks on peaceful protesters.
At least eight people in the anti-Saleh march were injured by gunmen seen shooting from rooftops, including a 20-year-old woman who died at a hospital after she was shot in the chest, doctors said.
The attempts to end clashes in Taiz came less than two weeks after Saleh signed a deal to hand over power to his deputy as part of a Gulf initiative by Yemen's wealthy Arab neighbours to end protests there.
The United States has been worried that the protests, which have weakened central government control in Yemen, could allow al Qaeda to take advantage of the security vacuum and threaten the world's number one oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, next door.
Activists blamed Monday's attacks on Saleh, who they say was determined to assert his control over the army despite the accord that made him a ceremonial president with no real powers.
"Saleh said he transferred his authority to the vice president, but this is a game. We won't have a new government until half of Taiz is dead," said Aklamy.
Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Basindwa, an opposition leader who is to form a unity government with Saleh's General People's Congress party, has said he would rethink his commitments under the deal if fighting in Taiz did not stop.
Although the violence had eased since Sunday, witnesses heard at least six explosions in the city on Monday.
Political crisis has frequently halted the modest oil exports Yemen uses to finance imports of basic foodstuffs, and ushered in what aid agencies deem a humanitarian crisis.
More than 100,000 people have been displaced by military conflicts in both the north and south.
Yemen youths defiant despite power transfer deal
December 5, 2011
SANAA — President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s inking of a power transfer deal has failed to convince thousands of Yemeni youths who are still staging a sit-in demonstration, proclaiming their revolution far from over.
Protesters from the “Youth Revolution” who initiated the uprising accuse traditional opposition parties, backed by prominent tribal forces, of having stolen their revolt by sharing power with Saleh’s regime.
Hammud Hazza, an activist who camps in Change Square — the epicentre of anti-regime protests in Sanaa since February — insists that “we have no alternative to the revolution.”
“Our main demands are: not to grant Saleh any immunity; to overthrow all members of his regime; and to establish a modern state,” said Hazza.
The Gulf-brokered deal which Saleh signed on November 23 grants immunity to him and members of his family — who control basic security and military institutions in the country — if he transfers all his powers to his deputy by February.
During the three-month period which began when he signed the UN-backed accord that he had stalled signing for months, Saleh stays on as an honorary president.
Unimpressed protesters still spend their nights in Change Square, a huge camp of hundreds of tents set up outside Sanaa University which has spread to surrounding streets across the capital’s north.
The camp has grown into a small town within Sanaa where a podium stands from which speeches are made each day, surrounded by small shops that sell civilian and military suits.
A market sells qat — a soft narcotic leaf that contains cathin and cathinone, which Yemenis chew for hours — alongside sandwiches, juice and traditional herbs and spices.
The square is protected by dissident troops led by General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar whose soldiers were locked in deadly battles with Saleh’s forces in which hundreds have been killed, many of them civilians.
Steps taken by the regime and the opposition to implement the Gulf plan, including the formation of a government of national unity and a commission to oversee the restructuring of the security forces, have not diminished the ardour of protesters.
Some have even started converting their tents into permanent mud brick buildings, apparently sending messages to both the government and the opposition alike that they are unconcerned by any agreement that does not see all members of Saleh’s regime out of power and bring him to trial.
“We are going ahead with our sit-in because we do not believe that Saleh will implement the Gulf deal,” says Mohammed al-Assal, a leading youth activist.
Khaled al-Madani, who represents the Shiite Zaidi rebels in Change Square, accuses the parliamentary opposition of having “hijacked the revolution and betrayed the blood of the martyrs to take its part of the pie.”
Independent activist Bassam al-Asbahi said “our revolution is against tribalism and backwardness.
“We know that we are against everyone — the president, the opposition, Saudi Arabia, and all super powers sponsoring the Gulf Initiative,” he said.
Asbahi said younths were divided between those in support of the opposition, including the influential Islamist Al-Islah (reform) party, and independent activists who have higher demands.
Parliamentary opposition leaders were “influenced by the tribes and do not really support our demands,” he added.
But it is Al-Islah figure Sheikh Hamid al-Ahmar, also a wealthy tribal leader, who financially backs the protesters.
Every day, the businessman provides protesters in the impoverished country’s Change Square with hot meals — the traditional rice with meat, chicken, and spices.
“The parliamentary opposition parties have a real historically important base in Yemen, as well as the financial and organising means by which they could keep the youths in the square,” said political analyst Fares al-Saqqaf.
“Without financing from these parties, Change Square would have been over,” said Saqqaf, who heads the Yemeni Centre for Future Studies based in Sanaa.
The parliamentary opposition parties use the youths to apply pressure on the president who has clung to 33 years of power.
“These parties realise that they are the youths who have forced Saleh to sign the deal, therefore these youths present a strategic reserve which the parties use to press the president to implement the initiative,” said Saqqaf.
SANAA — President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s inking of a power transfer deal has failed to convince thousands of Yemeni youths who are still staging a sit-in demonstration, proclaiming their revolution far from over.
Protesters from the “Youth Revolution” who initiated the uprising accuse traditional opposition parties, backed by prominent tribal forces, of having stolen their revolt by sharing power with Saleh’s regime.
Hammud Hazza, an activist who camps in Change Square — the epicentre of anti-regime protests in Sanaa since February — insists that “we have no alternative to the revolution.”
“Our main demands are: not to grant Saleh any immunity; to overthrow all members of his regime; and to establish a modern state,” said Hazza.
The Gulf-brokered deal which Saleh signed on November 23 grants immunity to him and members of his family — who control basic security and military institutions in the country — if he transfers all his powers to his deputy by February.
During the three-month period which began when he signed the UN-backed accord that he had stalled signing for months, Saleh stays on as an honorary president.
Unimpressed protesters still spend their nights in Change Square, a huge camp of hundreds of tents set up outside Sanaa University which has spread to surrounding streets across the capital’s north.
The camp has grown into a small town within Sanaa where a podium stands from which speeches are made each day, surrounded by small shops that sell civilian and military suits.
A market sells qat — a soft narcotic leaf that contains cathin and cathinone, which Yemenis chew for hours — alongside sandwiches, juice and traditional herbs and spices.
The square is protected by dissident troops led by General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar whose soldiers were locked in deadly battles with Saleh’s forces in which hundreds have been killed, many of them civilians.
Steps taken by the regime and the opposition to implement the Gulf plan, including the formation of a government of national unity and a commission to oversee the restructuring of the security forces, have not diminished the ardour of protesters.
Some have even started converting their tents into permanent mud brick buildings, apparently sending messages to both the government and the opposition alike that they are unconcerned by any agreement that does not see all members of Saleh’s regime out of power and bring him to trial.
“We are going ahead with our sit-in because we do not believe that Saleh will implement the Gulf deal,” says Mohammed al-Assal, a leading youth activist.
Khaled al-Madani, who represents the Shiite Zaidi rebels in Change Square, accuses the parliamentary opposition of having “hijacked the revolution and betrayed the blood of the martyrs to take its part of the pie.”
Independent activist Bassam al-Asbahi said “our revolution is against tribalism and backwardness.
“We know that we are against everyone — the president, the opposition, Saudi Arabia, and all super powers sponsoring the Gulf Initiative,” he said.
Asbahi said younths were divided between those in support of the opposition, including the influential Islamist Al-Islah (reform) party, and independent activists who have higher demands.
Parliamentary opposition leaders were “influenced by the tribes and do not really support our demands,” he added.
But it is Al-Islah figure Sheikh Hamid al-Ahmar, also a wealthy tribal leader, who financially backs the protesters.
Every day, the businessman provides protesters in the impoverished country’s Change Square with hot meals — the traditional rice with meat, chicken, and spices.
“The parliamentary opposition parties have a real historically important base in Yemen, as well as the financial and organising means by which they could keep the youths in the square,” said political analyst Fares al-Saqqaf.
“Without financing from these parties, Change Square would have been over,” said Saqqaf, who heads the Yemeni Centre for Future Studies based in Sanaa.
The parliamentary opposition parties use the youths to apply pressure on the president who has clung to 33 years of power.
“These parties realise that they are the youths who have forced Saleh to sign the deal, therefore these youths present a strategic reserve which the parties use to press the president to implement the initiative,” said Saqqaf.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
VP forms military affairs committee
Fatik Al-Rodaini
SANA'A, Dec. 04 - Vice President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi issued on Sunday a presidential decree to form a military affairs committee to realize the security and stability in the country.
According to the decree No. 29 for 2011, the Vice President is the chairman of the committee that also includes 14 members, topped by the defense and interior ministers.
The second article stipulates that the committee's chairman has the right to take the required measures and entrust anyone to carry out the committee's tasks.
The members of the military affairs committee as following:
1-Defense Minister
2- Interior Minster
3- General Nasser Abdo Rabbo Al-Taheri
4-General Mohammed Ali Al-Kassemi
5- General Abdullah Ali Aleoa
6- General Fadhel Al-Qawssi
7- General Rayadh Al-Qaershi
8- General Fadhel Abdul Majeed Al-Radfani
9- General Omar Abdul Samed Al-Yafeai
10- General Ali Said Abeed
11- General Abdul Rakeeb Thabet Al-Sobeehi
12- General Abdul Aziz Al-Shameri
13- General Qaed Al-Ansi
14- General Nasser Ali Al-Harabi (Secretary)
SANA'A, Dec. 04 - Vice President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi issued on Sunday a presidential decree to form a military affairs committee to realize the security and stability in the country.
According to the decree No. 29 for 2011, the Vice President is the chairman of the committee that also includes 14 members, topped by the defense and interior ministers.
The second article stipulates that the committee's chairman has the right to take the required measures and entrust anyone to carry out the committee's tasks.
The members of the military affairs committee as following:
1-Defense Minister
2- Interior Minster
3- General Nasser Abdo Rabbo Al-Taheri
4-General Mohammed Ali Al-Kassemi
5- General Abdullah Ali Aleoa
6- General Fadhel Al-Qawssi
7- General Rayadh Al-Qaershi
8- General Fadhel Abdul Majeed Al-Radfani
9- General Omar Abdul Samed Al-Yafeai
10- General Ali Said Abeed
11- General Abdul Rakeeb Thabet Al-Sobeehi
12- General Abdul Aziz Al-Shameri
13- General Qaed Al-Ansi
14- General Nasser Ali Al-Harabi (Secretary)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)