The percentage for crime control was 90 percent less in Yemen’s governorates during the first half of 2009, according to the Security Media Center at the Ministry of Interior. It stressed that this reflects the great efforts being made by security apparatuses to combat crimes and criminals and to maintain society’s stability and security.

Security statistics recorded a slight increase in crime rates and at 1.5 percent; however, the center considered this be below the normal and fits into the society’s development and the accelerated rhythms of life.

According to the same source, some crimes showed a 15-20 percent drop and this was attributed to the seriousness of security apparatuses to ban arms bearing in Yemeni cities as well as the full collaboration and coordination between the different security apparatuses.

In related news, the Ministry of Interior announced it will continue its efforts to develop police departments in a way that fits into the requirement of the current age and security needs.

This comes within a plan aiming to develop the performance of police departments nationwide and help them carry out their tasks efficiently and easily. The development plan is to be implemented in Sana’a in its first phase and then this will be generalized to other Yemeni governorates.

According to experts, the case is totally different in the field where there are more cases of kidnappings, killings, armed manifestations, stealing crimes, highway robberies and assaults by security personnel on people.

Several incidents of kidnapping for foreigners and Yemenis took place this year. The most shocking incident of kidnapping was in Sa’ada two months ago when a group including two German nurses, a German couple with their three children, a Briton and a South Korean were kidnapped. The group members were working for the Al-Jumhuri Hospital in Sa’ada.

The two German nurses and the South Korean teacher were found dead, two days from the reported kidnapping. Security apparatuses, despite their wider campaigns which stretched to provinces other than Sa’ada, managed not to locate the whereabouts of the kidnapped group.

There have been several cases of killings in Southern provinces for citizens belonging to Northern provinces. Dozens of people in South provinces were killed by security forces sent to disperse peaceful demonstrations and protests.

Cases of kidnapping of local citizens continued in several areas, the last of which was kidnapping Abdul Malik Al-Khamri from Hadda Street inside the capital, Sana’a, by tribesmen from Bani Dhabiyan as well as kidnapping a police officer from his village in Sanhan, the homeland of President Saleh and dozens high ranking security and military officers.