While Yemen is battling to get its institutions back on track following 2011 uprising and calls for comprehensive reforms, experts have often warned that unless officials are willing to address the country’s corruption crisis, no amount of funding will benefit the nation since aid will end up lost in some dignitaries’ pockets.

As Yemen officials are getting ready to attend the Friends of Yemen Conference in London (April 29, 2014) in order to discuss the impoverished nation’s financial and economic needs, Johannes van der Klaauw, UNHCR Yemen Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator was keen earlier this week to underscore the widening of Yemen’ social and humanitarian crisis.

Last week Yemen President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi authorized the biggest military operation to date against al-Qaeda positions across several provinces: Abyan, Shabwa and al-Bayda. Over two days (April 20-21) al-Qaeda militants and its training camps became the target of an intensive airstrike and large ground operation, in which an estimated 55 to 60 militants reportedly died.

Rights Organizations in Yemen represented by Seyaj, the country’s most prominent child rights organization urged the government to speed up the approval of the draft law, stressing that such piece of legislation will ensure that children are duly protected under the law. The rights groups also suggested that, in order to reflect ground realities and circumstances, the minimum age could be exceptionally reduced to 16 at the full discretion of the authorities.

Days after Yemen Defence Minister, Major General Mohammed Nasser Ahmed and several of his aides came back from Washington where they met with US military officials to discuss Yemen’s counter-terror strategy President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi declared war on al-Qaeda with an intensity and violence never witnessed before.

As Saudi Arabia and Qatar continue to feud over the now infamous Muslim Brotherhood and its alleged link to radical Islam, countries such as Yemen have found themselves caught in a complicated net of allegiances and alliances.

Recent developments in Yemen demonstrate that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is restive, capable and emboldened, but the militaristic approach of the United States is only worsening the situation.

The Yemeni geographer Al Hamdani (ca 900 AD) writes much about the city of Sa`ada and its surrounding. From him we know that Sa`ada used to be known as Yemeni region well before Islam. He mentions that Sa`ada lies in the middle of Qaraz region. Qaras is an Accacia tree from which juice and the gum "Arabicum" used to be extracted. In the surrounding of Sa`ada are some of the best wadis with horses, fruits, grapes and much animals.

As Yemen faces an aggravated terror threat since al-Qaeda has increased the frequency and reach of its attacks against both the military and security apparatus, President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi has been driving the counter-offensive, determined to oppose this new wave of terrorism.

When the Houthis (a Shiite group based in the northern province of Sa’ada organized under the leadership of Abdel Malek al-Houthi) first attacked Salafis militants in Dammaj back in late October 2013, at the heart of their dominion, little did government officials or the public have ever imagined that such a campaign was the premise of a grander regional expansionist plan.

Categorized the worst place to be for a woman, back in November 2013, two years after the Arab Spring movement swept across the Middle East, the women of Yemen remained determined to turn the impoverished nation into a modern civil state where women are respected and protected within their own rights, free from patriarchal stereotypes, in keeping with principles of equality and personal freedom.

Yemen’s most prominent media watchdog, the Freedom Foundation hosted an event in Sana’a to mark the publication of its 2013 Media Freedom report and announce the nominee of its 2013 Media Press Freedom award.

Ever since last October, when Houthis militants laid siege on Dar al-Hadith Salafi religious centre, in the northern province of Sa’ada, Yemen has been in a state of great turmoil, with media and politicians speaking of an impending war should the central government fail to diffuse the situation.
 

As battle lines have been drawn in Yemen highlands in between the Houthis (Shiite group organized under Abdel-Malek al-Houthi’s leadership) and the Salafis (Sunni ultra-orthodox group affiliated to al-Islah, Yemen’s most prominent Sunni radical faction), weeks of mounting tensions and bloodshed have

For the third time since his election at the president US President Barack Obama has reiterated on Monday his determination to close down Guantanamo Bay terror penitentiary and arrange for all detainees to be repatriated back to their country of origins.
 

Faced with an aggravated economic crisis and dangerously low foreign currencies reserve, President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi first had to turn toward the oil sector to try to establish how best to maximize Yemen’s income revenues, when he took power in 2012. Since the oil and gas industry represents over 70% of Yemen’s national budget, it was only natural for President Hadi to want to how so far his predecessor, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh had managed the country’s main source of revenues.
 

As Yemen prepares to draft its new constitution now that NDC representatives have laid down the ground work, rights activists were pleased to learn that Yemen intends to honour its commitment toward civil liberties by entrenching values such as freedom of thought, expression, gender equality and women’s rights directly into the constitution.
 

A hot topic, Guantanamo Bay terror detainees’ repatriation has acted a centrepiece to many conversations and many debates both in Yemen and abroad as rights activists, lawyers and politicians have argued back and fro, weighting national security parameters versus civil liberties.

Amid reports that tensions in between the Houthis and the Salafis have re-emerged in the province of Amran, located directly north of the capital and a sudden surge in assassination, Yemen President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi called on his countrymen to stand by him as he wished to oppose such “forces of evil.”

Although Yemen President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his anti-terror American partners have been keen to assert they have indeed weakened al-Qaeda’s network through a clever combination of ground intelligence and military fire-power, security experts have begged to differ, pointing instead to a much different reality.

A veteran politician, Founder and Head, Justice and Building Party, and state dignitary, Mohammed Abulahoum, who has dedicated his time to solving Yemen’ southern issue in his quality of vice-president of the southern committee at the National Dialogue, opened up last week to reporters on Yemen’s political progress so far.

In a report published earlier this week in al-Jazeera, Aref Abu Hatem, a political analyst, looked at Yemen’s current political predicament as the old and the new battle for power, both entities intent on claiming Yemen’s future for its own.

Almost two months after the Houthis (Shiite faction which stronghold is based in Sa’ada) and the Salafis (Sunni radicals) decided to turn Dammaj and the entire northern Sa’ada province into a battle ground, sources close to the matter have revealed that the death toll has dramatically increased since late earlier this month.

Socotra (Yemen) derives its magic name from the Sanskrit "dvipa sukhadhara" ("Island of Bliss"). Dragon's blood trees that look like flying saucers perched on trunks, trees that look like elephants' legs with pink flowers on top, unique birds of song such as Socotra's starling, sunbird, and grosbeak.

Having inherited a nation plagued by a multitude of inter-connected and over-lapping crises President Hadi, a veteran of the Saleh's era, could not if he had wanted to, fathom what intricate maze he would have to navigate through before ever hoping to shine a light on the ancient land of Sheba.

“You are a Bangladeshi. Did your country benefit from seceding from Pakistan?”  This question was asked of me in Yemen. I had been invited to meet with members of the National Dialogue who are debating and discussing the future of the Yemeni state.  

In a recent article to Global Post, Belkis Wille, a researcher with Human Rights Watch put the focus on Yemen journalists, revealing the hidden scars and untold trauma endured by press people in Yemen as their work have literally taken over their lives.