ARTICLE (March 18 2009): The world must recognise that if Yemen is not to fall apart like Somalia, it must boost aid to the impoverished state despite the global recession, officials, diplomats and experts in Sanaa believe. "Look at the Somalis -- (a few) million people, and they are creating problems for the world," Deputy Premier for Economic Affairs Abdulkarim Ismail al-Arhabi told AFP.Somalia-based pirates have plagued international vessels plying the shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden separating Yemen and Somalia, a strategic waterway to and from the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Pirates attacked more than 130 merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden last year, more than double the 2007 total, according to the International Maritime Bureau."Yemenis are 24 million and (they are) tough warriors. And theyve nothing to lose, like the Somalis," said Arhabi, also minister of planning and international co-operation. Already "used to poverty," in the words of one diplomat in Sanaa, the people of the poorest country in the Middle East can expect even more hardship as the world-wide downturn has drastically cut oil prices. Oil exports account for 70 percent of state revenue, so the oil price plunge hit hard.Hardship can breed extremism, and Yemen has a history. The Arabian Peninsula state is the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, and his al Qaeda group has launched many operations there -- notably the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in the port of Aden that killed 17 sailors. Four South Korean holidaymakers and their local guide in the historic eastern tourism city of Shibam were killed in a suicide bombing that Yemeni state media Monday blamed on al Qaeda...more..http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=7266&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Another Somalia in the making? Threats to Yemen unity
ARTICLE (March 18 2009): The world must recognise that if Yemen is not to fall apart like Somalia, it must boost aid to the impoverished state despite the global recession, officials, diplomats and experts in Sanaa believe. "Look at the Somalis -- (a few) million people, and they are creating problems for the world," Deputy Premier for Economic Affairs Abdulkarim Ismail al-Arhabi told AFP.Somalia-based pirates have plagued international vessels plying the shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden separating Yemen and Somalia, a strategic waterway to and from the Red Sea and Suez Canal. Pirates attacked more than 130 merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden last year, more than double the 2007 total, according to the International Maritime Bureau."Yemenis are 24 million and (they are) tough warriors. And theyve nothing to lose, like the Somalis," said Arhabi, also minister of planning and international co-operation. Already "used to poverty," in the words of one diplomat in Sanaa, the people of the poorest country in the Middle East can expect even more hardship as the world-wide downturn has drastically cut oil prices. Oil exports account for 70 percent of state revenue, so the oil price plunge hit hard.Hardship can breed extremism, and Yemen has a history. The Arabian Peninsula state is the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, and his al Qaeda group has launched many operations there -- notably the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in the port of Aden that killed 17 sailors. Four South Korean holidaymakers and their local guide in the historic eastern tourism city of Shibam were killed in a suicide bombing that Yemeni state media Monday blamed on al Qaeda...more..http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=7266&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=
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