President Hadi meets International Humanitarian delegation

By Fatik al-Rodaini

SANA'A, June 2, 2012- President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi discussed with the International Humanitarian Commission delegation the natural of the cooperation between Yemen and non-governmental humanitarian organizations.

During the meeting, President Hadi pointed to the 2011 crisis's repercussions at the security, political and economic levels, adding that crisis entered the process of the solution after singing the Gulf initiative and its Executive Mechanism and forming national collation government headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Ba Saundwa, which reached to several solutions.

The President also pointed out to the security and economic problems which are remaining the difficult crisis, saying not solving that the two problems, the political crisis is still continued.

Addressing the Humanitarian delegation, "The human side in Yemen is linked to security and economic aspect."

President Hadi also touched to what Yemen has suffered from over the past years, such as the internal wars and the social, in addition to al-Qaeda terrorist operations in some provinces in the south particularly in the province of Abyan, which target the security and stability there.

The president pointed out that there is another problem concerning nearly 6 million as well as half a million of Youths who graduated from universities and higher institutes and still unemployed, saying that most of that problem in most cases may lead to terror behavior.

President Hadi stressed the need of the international community's support for Yemen throughout providing all forms of aid in order to overcome the current situation, which if it continues it would have worse affect on local level and regional and international.

The president talked about the refugee problem, saying "Along with local displaced, there is also the problem of African refugees, which Yemen can't handle them together alone without cooperation from the international community.''

He said that the economic problem represents 75 per cent of the current crisis, demanding the international community to adopt a clear strategy based on a five-year development plan aims to assist the economic and agricultural sectors in the country.

For his part, the international humanitarian delegation confirmed their international organization's readiness to support Yemen to get out of its current crisis.

Yemeni prime minister calls for sanctions

June 2, 2012  

SANAA, Yemen, June 2 (UPI) -- Yemeni Prime Minister Mohamed Basindawa called on world powers to intervene and sanction those who impede Yemen's move toward democracy, officials said.

In a speech at the Partners Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations this week in Turkey, Basindawa said the international community must stand by the Yemeni people, the Yemen Post said Saturday.

Despite the signature of a power-transfer deal in November 2011. Yemen has been plagued by internal political conflicts jeopardizing its transition period with remnants of the regime refusing to comply with the directives of President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

In its latest session on Yemen, the Security Council warned on Wednesday it would act against those who hinder the country's progress.

The World Bank's role in Yemen's transition period and the need for CSO engagement

1 June 2012

BIC outlines the World Bank's current activities in Yemen and proposes that civil society engagement is necessary now more than ever.

Throughout 2011, Yemenis fought for their right to a democratic country free of corruption and dictatorship. The country underwent an extremely painful and difficult year in which the regime’s forces fought the rebellion, and used the withholding of basic services such as electricity as political pawns in the fight to retain power. Meanwhile, international institutions and bilateral donors halted aid to Yemen either in protest of the regime’s actions, or due to their inability to monitor how the government was spending the funds. The World Bank was one such donor and in July 2011 released a statement announcing that all disbursements to Yemen would be temporarily suspended.

The Bank restarted operations in January 2012 in a limited way, but since the February election which passed the political reins to Abdrabbo Al-Hadi, the Bank’s role in the transitional period has become increasingly clear and strong. The DC-based institution may not be the biggest lender in the game - indeed the Friends of Yemen conference that took place on May 23rd proved that countries like Saudi Arabia will continue to lend impressive sums to Yemen – but it certainly deserves our attention.

Yemen is considered one of the poorer countries in the Bank’s portfolio, and as such the Bank provides grants to the country as opposed to loans. Historically however, even though the amounts that the Bank gives to Yemen are not very substantial relative to some other Middle East and North Africa countries like Egypt or Morocco, Yemen has not been able to absorb all the money that the Bank has given it. Moreover, certain projects have had more success than others with respect to implementation and results. Consequently, the Bank plans to re-evaluate and restructure its existing portfolio in the country keeping the “good” projects and canceling others that were not seeing success. This is unusual for the Bank which ordinarily prefers to keep the money flowing out of its door, and it is curious as to whether this type of sensible decision would have been made had it been loans we were talking about rather than grants.

Beyond its project portfolio, the World Bank has been leading efforts on a social and economic assessment alongside the European Union, the United Nations, and the Islamic Development Bank, to determine the impact of the past year’s political crisis on the economic and social condition of Yemen. Moreover, the Bank is providing technical assistance to the government on its economic transition plan. Very importantly, the Bank will be coordinating and co-chairing a donor conference that will be taking place in the coming months.

While Yemeni civil society was unfortunately not invited to be a part of the Friends of Yemen conference, a number of groups have asked the Bank to give space to civil society at the upcoming donor conference. It is yet to be seen how the Bank will respond to this request but the outlook is positive. This is after all not a novel concept; civil society and the private sector, for that matter, have been present at several donor conferences that the Bank has coordinated in the past, including in Uganda and Nepal.

The involvement of civil society in activities being discussed and proposed by international organizations and by the government of Yemen is one of absolute necessity. Some say that a revolution took place in Yemen, but we could also consider that the revolution is still in motion and as such, bringing those voices to the table would be useful at any moment in time but bringing them in now is particularly critical. This is the moment when the blueprints for this country's future are being drawn up; the constitution is being drafted, the laws are being made, and the economic plans which could affect every one of Yemen's 24 million people are being developed. These plans can not be made behind closed doors - all stakeholders should be involved. While these documents are in their budding stages, civil society is not. There is a lot that Yemeni civil society has to offer, but there need to be the opportunities to do so.

In order for there to be meaningful engagement, timely information and the availability of space is key. This is what the World Bank and other international institutions can and should do. This is also what they should encourage the government of Yemen to do. On the other hand, Yemeni civil society also has to step up and be ready to engage; ready to read and analyze that information and ready to participate in that space.

12 al-Qaida insurgents killed in U.S. drone strike in south Yemen

Baku-APA. At least 12 al-Qaida militants were killed on Friday when a U.S. drone strike pounded their compound in the southern province of Abyan, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The U.S. drone fired three missiles on a compound used for communications and meetings of the al-Qaida militants in the eastern parts of Mahfad town in Abyan province, killing at least 12 insurgents at the scene, the local government official said on condition of anonymity.

Three Somalis and some other foreign nationals were among the killed insurgents, the official said.

The al-Qaida compound was completely demolished in the attack along with some communication materials used by the terrorist group, he added.

Local residents confirmed to Xinhua said "for the first time, several foreigners were killed by the air strike that targeted an al-Qaida complex in Mahfad town."

The al-Qaida spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Hundreds of militants from the Yemen-based al-Qaida branch, locally known as Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), are attempting to expand their foothold and take control over the county’s southern regions where central authority has almost no presence.

The United States strongly supported Yemen in the fight against al-Qaida with drone attacks, killing a number of senior al-Qaida members.

Yemeni militants say they release 27 soldiers

SANAA | Fri Jun 1, 2012

 (Reuters) - A Yemeni Islamist group linked to al Qaeda said on Friday it had released 27 soldiers taken prisoner, after they vowed to quit the U.S.-backed government army.

Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic law) said in a statement it had seized the soldiers last month in Abyan province in the south of the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state.

Yemeni troops continued bombing targets in the Shaqra and Arqoub regions of Abyan for a fifth day on Thursday, part of an army offensive against the militants. There was no news of casualties.

Yemen's government has been battling al Qaeda-linked groups which took over areas of south and central Yemen during an uprising last year against veteran ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh before he finally stepped down in February.

The army has regained control of some parts of Abyan, including parts of the provincial capital Zinjibar, and surrounds the town of Jaar, after militants overran them last year.

The regions are on Yemen's southern coast by the Arabian Sea, a key shipping route.

Last week a suicide bomber killed more than 90 soldiers in Sanaa in an attack claimed by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in revenge for the operations against them.

Washington sees AQAP as a threat to international security and has thrown its weight behind Yemen's new president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. It has been using pilotless planes known as drones to kill militants.