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Yemen: Facts and figures

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With 25 million people, Yemen is home to the largest population in the region, it is the second-largest country on the peninsula, has the highest mountains and the longest border with Saudi Arabia [AFP]
Published On 25 Jan 201025 Jan 2010
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empire - yemen pic gallery - 640x333
Yemen has a fascinating millenary culture and its cities are famed throughout the world for their unique architecture [AFP]
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empire - yemen pic gallery - 640x333
Yemeni jihadi networks appear to be growing as operating conditions in Iraq, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia become more difficult and "under-governed" areas in Yemen seem to offer sanctuary. In reaction to this, the budget for US military assistance to Yemen is doubling [AFP]
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Obama has pledged to double the $70mn in counterterrorism aid, a figure that does not include covert programmes run by US special forces or the CIA. Yemen will now top Pakistan, which gets $112mn [AFP]
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Britain had taken a lead on development aid well before the current focus on terrorism. While last year USAID provision for Yemen was $34mn, the funding provided by Britain was $40mn, a figure that is expected to rise to $60mn in 2010 [AFP]
Yemen gallery - Yemeni tribesmen chew qat, at Arhab, north of Sanaa
According to Clive Jones, an expert on Yemen from Leeds University, providing money to tribal areas in Yemen is the best way to "wean" tribes away from al-Qaeda. "It has to be recognised that the government in Sanaa has existed not as a means of controlling the tribes, but of arbitrating between them," he says. "That arbitration role seems to have broken down" [AFP]
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Since first coming to power as leader of the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) in 1978, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has balanced progress with nepotism, developing a fragile democracy which has been discredited by rapacious elements of his own regime [AFP]
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"Yemen was the first Arabian country to institute regular elections, limit presidential stays to two terms and allow women to vote and be elected to government," said Abdulwahab Abdulla al-Hajjri, the Yemeni minister for defence and security affairs [AFP]
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"Any intervention or direct action by the US could strengthen the al-Qaeda network and not weaken it. Our position is clear; we will fight and chase the al-Qaeda group depending on Yemeni forces and security agencies," said Rashed al-Aleemi, the Yemeni minister for defence and security affairs, January 7, 2010 [AFP]
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Yemen relies on the oil sector for 90 per cent of its export earnings and 70 per cent of government revenue - a problem when oil reserves are being depleted (production has gone from 460,000 bpd in 2002 to 280,000 bpd last year [AFP]
Yemen Gallery - Undated handout picture shows Yemen soldiers while fighting against Shiite rebels in the northern Saada province.
The Yemeni military has an estimated 85,000 personnel - 900,000 potential forces including conscripts [AFP]
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The military budget represents 40 per cent of the government budget and seven per cent of GDP - one of the highest in the world [AFP]
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Despite of being the poorest Arab country, 50,000 people from Somalia and Ethiopia crossed the Red Sea in 2008 as refugees and the number climbed to 80,000 in 2009 [AFP]


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