Armies of Liberation

Yemen Post: Late last year, I met with the Minister of Water and he clearly said that it is impossible to end qat plantation in Yemen. He himself is known to have massive qat farms in Ibb region, while he admits that he would not stop qat plantation in his farms until the government gives him other options. The minister is saying that he wants options from the government in order to stop qat plantation, as if he is not in the government and responsible for this tragic file. He forgets that it is his duty to save Yemen from water depletion.

Yemen Chewers Spend $ 7 Million on Khat a Day: Yemeni people spend about $ 7 million a day on khat, a stimulus tree chewed by 75 per cent of males, compared to 33 per cent of women, an official has said.
(Read on …)

One important issue that is not well understood regarding southern Yemen is the difference between loosely organized clans and cohesive tribes, a factor of rainfall levels. This article however discusses urban migration resulting from water shortages and the resulting impact on agricultural output.

Reuters: Farmers, 70 percent of the population, can no longer subsist on their own crops. Youths are flocking from the countryside to the cities in search of jobs to provide for their families. (Read on …)

Its very dangerous for a US ambassador or any western diplomat to be driving around Yemen. At the same time, the embassy can become an echo chamber when its primary input is from overt and covert Saleh loyalists who distort reality.

Ambassador Feierstein meets the people of Amran

US Embassy press release October 26, 2010

On October 26, U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein visited Amran City to discuss with government officials, journalists, teachers and youth how the United States can assist the people of Amran in overcoming the development challenges in their province.

Ambassador Feierstein met with Governor Kahlan Mujahed Abu Shawarib, visited a primary school supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development, took a walking tour of the beautiful and historic old city of Amran, spoke with students at Amran University, visited a cement factory, and conducted a roundtable with local journalists. During these meetings, he reiterated the support of the United States for the Yemeni government and people’s efforts to improve the quality of education and health services and to address security issues in Yemen.

The visit underscored the long and productive partnership between the United States and the people of Amran.

Yemen Post

Water scarcity, population growth and internal conflicts are major reasons for food insecurity in Yemen, a recent report has said, warning if immediate action is not taken, food security will remain at extremely low levels until 2010 and the country will be vulnerable for external shocks and disasters.
The report issued by the Institute of Food Research (IFR) noted that food insecurity is higher in rural areas than in urban areas. (Read on …)

What a bloody day.

Border guards kill qat smuggler HARADH, Nov. 04 (Saba) – A Yemeni qat smuggler has been shot dead by Saudi border guards while trying to smuggle qat leaves, which is banned in Saudi Arabia, across the Yemeni-Saudi border,

Interior Ministry reported on Wednesday that Yemen’s security authorities of Hajjah province have delivered the body of the man, 21, to his family.

Though it is not banned in Yemen, qat is strictly forbidden in Saudi Arabia, which considers as a narcotic.

On the sea… They are reporting it as a French warship in the Arabic Elaf, and recently Yemen’s official media stated an investigation showed France shot down a civilian airliner although that is improbable.

1 dead as Anti-Piracy Forces attack Yemeni boat

SANA’A, Nov. 04 (Saba) – A Yemeni fishermen has been killed and three others wounded after their boat was attacked by international forces combating piracy off Somalia, the Interior ministry said on Wednesday. (Read on …)

The water has been off in Zanjabar since July 27, and they are taking it personally. IRIN

SANAA, 16 August 2009 (IRIN) – Water and sanitation companies in Yemen are adopting unprecedented water rationing in major cities including the capital Sanaa, Taiz, Mukalla, al-Beidha, al-Dhalea and Lahj, local council officials said.

Urgent action is needed to halt depletion of the country’s water resources, Abdulqader Hanash, deputy minister for water affairs, told IRIN. Some 90 percent of available water is used for agriculture, leaving just 10 percent for industrial and household use, he said. Specialists have said before that 40 percent of Yemen’s agricultural water consumption can be attributed to the cultivation of Qat – a mild narcotic plant. (Read on …)

ISRIA

Yemen – Most pesticides coming to Yemen for Qat
Qat tree is behind importing tons of illegal pesticides yearly to the country, said General Manager of Agricultural Guidance Department Dr. Mansour al-Aqel.

He made it clear that Qat consumes 80 percent of imported pesticides while the other 20 percent are used for agricultural crops topped by cucumber. But he affirmed that other agricultural crops (like wheat) do not contain pesticides. (Read on …)

I really have to stop reading and blogging and get back to work, but I want to highlight one aspect of the very accurate CGO Sa’ada report which lays out (with supporting documentation) many basic truths that have been obscured for years- including the following on page 25, which correctly notes the four ceasefires failed in part because the regime failed to implement its own part of the deal- because the military failed to follow orders.

The military, ministries, security forces etc. function as fiefdoms and are beyond control of the central government, which is also why the reforms never get implemented and development projects fail time after time. Because of corruption and the complete lack of accountability, different parts of the government go in different directions and compete with each other and, in sum, produce an overall irrational outcome. Saleh could never make peace, he didn’t have the capacity (assuming he was sincere) because the military had an agenda of its own.

Arguably the most serious impediment was that both
mediation efforts and steps announced by the government
to calm the situation were either undermined by
accompanying repressive measures or, more simply,
not implemented at all.149 This partly resulted from
competing approaches between the political leadership
and army command. According to a Zaydi scholar who
participated in unofficial mediation efforts, “when the
president called for mediation, the army did not always
cooperate. Mediation efforts would have succeeded
had there been a consensus between the politicians and
the army. Instead, they were sabotaged by disagreement”.
150 This claim was supported by different participants
and independent observers. Another mediator
offered an example of government branches working
at cross-purposes:

So now extrapolate that lack of central control of the military and the security forces to the issues of terrorism and organized crime, and what do you get – a mafia with an airforce and military commanders training terrorists in military camps. This too one day will be documented.

Update: Yemen Post: Man wounded as police destroy his home with bulldozers.

Update 2: ISPN:

“Qat is a major source of tax revenue and the centre of all corruption in Yemen. Over 50 percent of tax revenue is derived from qat, but this is only about a third of the real revenue it generates. Everyone from farmers to the highest officials is involved in the qat trade and taking money under the table.”

While the government makes broad statements about its intention to reduce the consumption and cultivation of the narcotic plant, any genuine effort is thwarted from within, he adds. “Much of the crop is actually grown on government land, so officials involved will block any attempt to reduce its market.”

Its the same configuration over and over in every area including the political realm, corporate, security, basic services, development and terrorism. There is no single government, only multiple actors deploying state power and resources for a variety of ends.

(As a side note, Im so happy the report documents that, NO, the Houthi prisoners were never released- since 2005- despite at least 25 government announcments to the contrary. The regime arrested its own fact finding committee, and so on. Its a good report. You can’t imagine the incredible flack I got in 2005 for writing that 68,000 Sa’ada residents were displaced by the war; by 2008 the number was 130,000. Hopefully there will be some changes now as the truth is better documented by both CGO and Human Rights Watch. My photo essay of destruction in Sa’ada is at Bill’s. You can see, there really needs to be some changes.)

PSA: There may be some odd, boring and entirely out of sequence stuff popping up over the next week, as I move private posts and drafts from the back to the front. The internal search function works more completley on posts and I need to be zipping at the moment. The stability of Yemen’s banking system is actually rather important, and its distorted, as all systems in Yemen are, by corruption.

YO 5/22,

Hafez Mayad, the Chairman of the board of Cooperative and Agricultural Credit bank (CAC Bank) confirmed that Yemeni officials, sheikhs, and well-known people are indebted YR5 billion to CAC Bank. He said that during the press conference, held last Wednesday during the ceremony for the launching of their e-banking product.

Mayad stated that this indebt came as result of the absence of follow up mechanisms in the previous time. He clarified those people (plunderers as he called them) who are indebted to CAC bank are the main factor of its failure. Mayad was responding to claims by Mps that the CAC Bank abandoned its main role related to support agricultural sector.

He said that CAC Bank will not be a resource of enrichment for plunderers anymore.
In terms of implementing government policy related to supporting the agricultural sector, Mayad said, “We work on supporting this sector by governmental money only, not by money of depositors. I mean that it is not allowed for any one to use money of depositors to support any one.”

The e-banking product is a banking system which allows you to make most of your banking transactions at anytime wherever you are through the internet, Mayad said. CAC Bank international e-banking is considered to be the first system in Yemen and in the Middle East which generates different functionality related to banking services, high technology and security, Mayad said.

Mayad said CAC Bank occupied the first rank in the financing of economic sectors during 2008 according to the report issued by Central Bank of Yemen, achieving the growth rate of 46.5 percent and contributed to the financing of the economic sector by 35.6 percent at the level of the banking sector.

Over a quarter of land is planted with Qat.

Yemen Post

A parliamentary report showed that the total agricultural land in Yemen increased to 490032 hectares in 2007, 13.8% more than in 2006. 141163 hectares of this land planted with khat, an increase of 3.9% compared to 2006. (Read on …)

That’s really a shame, predictable though. OpenDocument

Yemen: Fears of flood-affected farmers abandoning agriculture
Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)

Date: 12 Apr 2009

SEYOUN, 12 April 2009 (IRIN) – An official has warned that delays in restoring the severely flood-affected agriculture sector in Hadhramaut Governorate, southeastern Yemen, will prompt farmers to abandon their jobs and seek work in other sectors, affecting food security in the impoverished country. (Read on …)

Saudi potatoes are causing a stir this year, and all agricultural enterprises in Yemen need support considering 90% of grains are imported. More on the dramatic decline in wheat imports below the fold.

Yemen Post

Farmers of Marib province confirmed that the citizens’ losses are estimated to be hundreds of millions that are going even higher if the ‘export mafia’, as they said, continues damaging the national economy of the country.

A number of farmers in Marib province threatened to stop the supply of gas to the capital Sanaa in response to ignoring their repeated demands by the competent authorities for stopping potatoes import from various countries. (Read on …)

The corruption is predictable but the UN’s incompetence and complacency in the face of these disasters, from the refugees, to Sa’ada to Hadramout, is staggering.

IRIN

SEYOUN, 1 April 2009 (IRIN) – Delays in distributing food aid are generating anger and despair among people in the southern Yemeni governorate of Hadhramaut affected by the October 2008 floods, flood-displaced people and community leaders say.

“We only received food rations for one month after the disaster,” said Issa Awadh Sedan, a mason from Mashta, a severely affected part of Tarim District in Hardhamaut. Sedan lost his house in the floods which left 47 dead and displaced 25,000 others. (Read on …)

Yemen Times

Yemen’s economy highly depends on oil resources, with the country’s oil exports accounting for around 85 percent of export revenues and 33 percent of the GDP, according to Oct. 2007 statistics.

These figures indicate how heavily Yemen depends on oil, although the depletion threatens the oil reserves which are estimated at 116,800,000 barrels per year and 320,000 barrels per day, on average in 2007.

Yemeni non-oil exports accounted for about 27 percent of export revenues in 2007, with little improvement from 22 percent in 2006. This information came from Yahya Al-Motwakel, Minister of Industry and Trade, who reported it in the latest National Exports Conference which was held in Sana’a between November 24th and 25th, 2008.

The total revenue of the non-oil exports rose from around twelve billion YR in 2000 to YR 123 billion in 2007, according to Noman Al-Mulsi, secretary general of the Yemeni Export Supreme Council. (Read on …)

Spending 28% of income in low income homes.
Some children start chewing as young as seven.

Yemen Times

Julie G. Viloria-Williams has over 25 years of experience with the World Bank in sustainable people-based development. She held positions in Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Eastern and Central Asian countries before becoming the Middle East and North Africa regional expert in September last year. She is the team leader in the Qat dialogue task in Yemen, which represents the World Bank’s assistance to Yemen in dealing with this issue. Her job involves research into the issues and development needs of countries within the MENA region, and identification of potential threats, especially on the issues that affect the livelihood of citizens.

“Because of the urgency of the Qat problem in Yemen, it has become the World Bank’s fourth pillar in the bank’s new country assistance strategy along with growth, governance and the Millenium Development Goals,” she said. Based on the December country assistance strategy consultation, the World Bank’s assistance to Yemen will take the form of grants, rather than loans, to be provided over the next three years.

During her recent visit to Yemen, Viloria-Williams met with the various stakeholders and discussed with them the issue of Qat. She also attended some focus groups, during which she realized just how deep the problem is.

“In many families children as young as seven start chewing because of parental influence, especially because mothers, who are usually uneducated, think of Qat as means to bind their children to the family,” she said.

As a part of its campaign against Qat, the WB will be producing a documentary on Qat in Yemen, in both Arabic and English, she anticipates that it will be broadcast on Yemeni TV among other media channels in a bid to spread awareness.

Size of the problem

According to a detailed survey carried out by the World Bank in mid 2006, 72 percent of men and 33 percent of women chew Qat for an average of 6 hours per day. Qat absorbs 10 percent of the average household income and over 28 percent for low income groups. Qat production, trade and consumption accounts for 10 percent of GDP, and is the cause of many health problems. The study sampled more than four thousand Yemenis from around the Republic. (Read on …)

The administration is utterly dysfunctional.

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Dec 23 — As the spread of myiasis, a condition where animal or human tissue is infested with fly larvae or maggots, in the Mahwit governorate rapidly accelerates, field teams from the General Department for Animal Resources (GDAR) have ceased working towards combating this potentially fatal disease.

The teams stopped work three weeks ago because, according to Ahmed Al-Hasibi, director of the Animal Wealth Administration in Mahwit governorate, “the vector is out of control, it is a fly in the air.”

However, two teams in Bani Sa’ad, one in Al-Khabt and another in Milhan are still working towards eradicating the disease.

“At the moment, GDAR field teams have stopped fighting the epidemic. Because they have not received their salaries from the Ministry of Agriculture since the 3rd December, they have decided to quit,” Al-Hasibi said. (Read on …)

IRIN

MUKALLA, 8 December 2008 (IRIN) – Agricultural experts, government officials and local communities in Hadramaut Governorate, southern Yemen, are urging the government to tackle an evergreen and fast-growing shrub which has been blocking waterways, with sometimes devastating consequences.

They say the shrub is responsible for exacerbating the late October floods by blocking watercourses and diverting floodwater into villages which might otherwise have been unscathed. At least 90 people were killed, and 20,000-25,000 were made homeless by the floods. (Read on …)

I just can’t take it anymore.

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Nov. 9 — A seminar on the hazards of using sewage water to irrigate crops was held on Thursday in Taiz during the Al-Saeed Forum for Sciences and Culture.

Chaired by Professor Abdulrahman Al-Zubairi, chairman of the department of Microbiology in the Faculty of Sciences at Taiz University, the seminar stressed the importance of immediate attention to the fact that a shortage of water resources has prompted many Yemeni farmers to resort to use sewage water to irrigate their farms.

Al-Zubairi explains, “The shortage of water is the result of both the increasing rate of population growth and irresponsible irrigation. Only seven percent of underground water is consumed by the population, while 93 percent is used for irrigating crops, especially qat.”

The total amount of water used annually is 3.5 billion cubic meters of which 93 percent is used in agriculture, 6 percent in households and 1 percent by industry. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, the renewed fresh water is 2.5 billion cubic meters per year creating a gap between used water and renewed fresh water of one billion cubic meters a year. (Read on …)

YO

According to the al-Afif Cultural Foundation, it is estimated that about 70 to 80 percent of Yemenis between the ages of 16 and 50 years have chewed Qat on at least one occasion. It has also been estimated that Yemenis spend about 14.6 million man-hours a day chewing Qat. This wasted time could be used in more productive ways, such as engaging in work, extracurricular activities, studying or exercising.

The report, published on the WHO’s website, indicates that nearly 90 percent of adult males chew Qat daily for three to four hours, and that more than 50 percent of females engage in this serious habit.

According to WHO reports, Qat production seriously damages the already weak Yemeni economy. Many farmers replace coffee and other useful crops with Qat trees as they yield far larger profits. More than 90,000 Qat trees were planted on Yemeni farms during the 30 years from 1970 to 2000, the report said. It is also found that about 60 percent of areas that could be used to grow cash crops are being used to cultivate Qat, which consumes huge quantities of Yemen’s already limited underground water. (Read on …)

Yemen Post

A report by the Oil Committee at Parliament indicated that the private sector in Yemen failed to establish and build one refinery in Dhabah in Ras Isa area, despite the different privileges it was granted together with the time period lasting for eight years.

It also announced that some commercial houses seek to privatize Aden Port Refinery and accused them of playing with the numbers and distorting facts for achieving certain ends. (Read on …)